How to survive Yosemite in July
Amy Beddows 5:26 p.m., June 18
Orange County
Big Bend Loop
Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is just one component of south Orange County’s 20,000-acre swath of coastal open-space parkland that is open to all kinds of non-motorized travel. The Big Bend Loop trail route (which takes ...
Upper Hot Spring Canyon
Silent, except for the gentle gurgle of water over stone, upper Hot Spring Canyon is an easy-to-reach hideaway in the Santa Ana Mountains, not very far from a pair of Cleveland National Forest campgrounds. Those ...
Bedford Peak
The no-nonsense climb (2200 feet of elevation gain) to Bedford Peak, one of the principal summits along the Santa Ana Mountains’ “Main Divide,” is both physically demanding and scenically rewarding. The latter is especially true ...
Hike to Orange County's micro Grand Canyon in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains.
In 1991 Orange County opened the 1500-acre Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, which sprawls across the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains just east of the communities of Lake Forest and El Toro. One surprise can ...
Travel over viewful ridges and down a verdant canyon in Orange County's Crystal Cove State Park.
The Deer Canyon loop route in Crystal Cove State Park explores the higher ridges and valleys of Orange County's coastal mountain range -- the San Joaquin Hills. Hikers should budget about four hours for the ...
Enjoy a panorama of mountains, blue ocean, and plenty of urban sprawl from Orange County's Robbers Peak.
The name Robbers Peak commemorates the notorious outlaws Joaquin Murietta, Three Finger Jack, and others of the late 1800s. Swooping down out of the hills, these bandits terrorized farmers below and preyed upon passengers traveling ...
Catch a panoramic view of south Orange County's coastline from Seaview Park in Laguna Niguel.
Starting from Seaview Park in the city of Laguna Niguel, a brief walk on a popular trail will take you past several interpretive panels annotating the common species of coastal vegetation found throughout coastal Southern ...
Emerald Canyon in Orange County's Laguna Coast Wilderness Park attracts hikers and mountain bikers.
Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is a spacious Orange County preserve covering several thousand acres of natural landscape adjacent to Laguna Beach. Emerald Canyon, one of its finer natural features, carves its way down a three-mile ...
Orange County's new Bell View Regional Trail offers wide views of far-flung suburbs and brooding mountains.
The Bell View Regional Trail, for hikers, equestrians, and cyclists, starts as a "community trail" threading through the suburban-edge communities of Rancho Santa Margarita and Coto de Caza. It then assumes a wilder character as ...
Orange County's El Modena Open Space perches like an island above the L. A. Basin sprawl.
The mile-long El Modena Open Space in the city of Orange preserves a steep-sided, miniature mountain range, clothed in a tough mixture of drought-resistant cactus and sage-scrub vegetation. Underfoot, you'll find colorful andesite and pyroclastic ...
Orange County's Black Star Canyon conceals a surprising waterfall.
Good timing is the key to catching the waterfall in Black Star Canyon at its best. Since only about three square miles of drainage area lie above it, persistent rains are needed to get more ...
Discover sea stacks and small sea cave at the historic Dana Point headlands in Orange County.
The sea cliffs at Dana Point are revered by historians as the site where Spanish vaqueros threw hides over the cliffs and down to waiting ships as described in Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before ...
Discover peace, quiet, birds, and native plants at Orange County's San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary.
As one of the richest wetland areas Southern California, the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary offers an uncommon opportunity to come in contact with a natural ecosystem seemingly plunked down in the midst of Orange County's ...
Enjoy an easy-going trek along south Orange County's secluded Crystal Cove coastline.
Hemmed in by hundred-foot cliffs on one side and the restless surf on the other, Crystal Cove State Park's three miles of sandy beachfront seem strangely detached from the busy Orange County world above. Aside ...
Discover a showery 20-foot cascade in Coal Canyon, Orange County's premier wildlife corridor.
For at least three decades, the Coal Canyon diamond interchange on the Riverside Freeway through Santa Ana Canyon was a virtual joke, featuring ramps to and from nowhere. "Nowhere" might have been replaced by subdivisions ...
