Afoot and Afield: Orange County. Jerry Schad
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Laguna Beach residents have faced disasters periodically. The Laguna Beach Fire destroyed hundreds of homes in 1993. A landslide on a waterlogged slope destroyed or destabilized dozens of hillside homes in early 2005.
Laguna residents have also been fiercely protective of the natural environment around their coastal town. In the 1980s and ’90s, they spearheaded a campaign to protect thousands of acres of land in and around Laguna Canyon slated for development. Those efforts reached a dramatic crescendo in 1989 when more than 8,000 people marched down the road through Laguna Canyon protesting the Irvine Company’s plan to build a huge housing development there. In what many regard as a win–win outcome, the company was allowed to proceed with massive urban development elsewhere, and large parcels of land, such as the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, were created with the help of grants, donations, and park bond funds. The park now forms the heart of the South Coast Wilderness.
Sandstone cave at Willow Canyon Staging Area
trip 4.1 Nix Loop
Distance 4.4 miles (loop)
Hiking Time 2½ hours
Elevation Gain 800’
Difficulty Moderate
Trail Use Hiking only
Best Times October–May
Agency OC Parks: LCWP
Permit OC Parks parking fee required
DIRECTIONS Park at the Nix Nature Center on the west side of Laguna Canyon Road (Highway 133), 1.1 miles north of the 73 Toll Road.
Starting at the James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center, this loop tours sage scrub slopes and a ridgeline offering far-reaching views. The center is the headquarters for the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park; visit ocparks.com for a schedule of interpretive events.
Many trails radiate from the parking area. Be sure to start up Little Sycamore Canyon from the trailhead to the right of the center. Promptly cross Marys Trail (an interpretive nature trail), then cross it again before making a steep ascent into the canyon. The sycamores on the canyon floor are stunted, perhaps by the sandstone bedrock that lays just beneath the soil. Your path leads through tall laurel sumac shrubs and through other coastal sage scrub, including black and white sage, California sagebrush, bush sunflower, and California everlasting. The hill to the north is pockmarked with small caves once used by the Tongva tribe of Native Americans.
In 1 mile, reach the top of the canyon, and turn right onto the Serrano Ridge Trail at post #29. The ridge offers expansive views from Santiago Peak to the San Gabriels and the Palos Verdes Hills, including the high-rises and countless subdivisions of Irvine. Turkey vultures favor this ridge, riding the thermals in search of carrion. You’ll also likely encounter mountain bikers making a loop from Quail Hill. Pass the Rabbit Run Trail leading west into the Irvine Open Space Preserve; this trail is closed to the public except by guided tour and on special access days.
Serrano Ridge
In 1.1 miles, drop to a saddle where you can turn right onto the West Canyon Trail. The road descends to a junction with the Mule Deer Trail (access to which is also restricted) and some utility roads, then undulates southward through the sage scrub. In another 1.5 mile, pass under two highway bridges. Parallel the busy Highway 133 for 0.5 mile to a junction at the edge of Dilley Preserve, where you turn right and pass under another set of highway bridges to return to the nature center.
trip 4.2 Laurel Canyon Loop
Distance 3.5 miles (loop)
Hiking Time 2 hours
Elevation Gain 700’
Difficulty Moderate
Trail Use Good for kids
Best Times All year
Agency OC Parks: LCWP
Permit OC Parks parking fee required
DIRECTIONS Park at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park’s Willow Canyon staging area on the west side of Laguna Canyon Road, 3 miles north of Laguna Beach. This point is 5 miles south of the 405 Freeway, 0.7 mile south of the 73 Toll Road, and 0.2 mile south of the intersection of El Toro and Laguna Canyon Roads.
The best single hike within the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is surely the secluded Laurel Canyon loop. Though it lies close to the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor tollway, that roadway and much of its associated urban development is hidden from both sight and sound along most of the route.
Volunteers frequently staff a booth at the Willow Canyon staging area, offering tips about the logistics of hiking in the park as well as the area’s natural history. Follow the fire road beyond—Willow Canyon Road, which gains nearly 600 feet of elevation in the next 1.5 miles. Springtime wildflowers bloom in profusion along this stretch, which cuts along east- and north-facing slopes smothered in thick chaparral.
Banshee Rock, in Laurel Canyon, was formed by sandstone weathering.
At 1.5 miles, turn right on the first intersecting pathway. Traverse a grassy meadow, and then follow the trail as it plunges down through more dense growths of chaparral toward the narrow bottom of Laurel Canyon. The deeper you go, the more you gain a sense of seclusion. Once you arrive in the canyon bottom (2 miles), don’t miss the turn onto the narrow trail that branches right and goes down (not up) the canyon.
Graced with gorgeous oaks and sycamores (and copious amounts of poison oak), Laurel Canyon has recovered from the extremely hot, fast-moving Laguna Beach Fire of October 1993. Nearly all of the vegetation you see here is no stranger to periodic fires. Centuries ago, coastal Southern California landscapes, such as this one, were visited by fire every decade or so.
At 2.4 miles, you pass near the lip of a dramatic dropoff—a seasonal waterfall nearly 100 feet high. During the extraordinarily wet winter of 2005, hikers beheld a spectacular sight of plunging water, but most years, this declivity sports only a modest trickle.
Past the lip of the falls, you swing to the left side of the canyon bottom and descend along a dry, south-facing slope. By 3 miles, you emerge in a grassy meadow that is either green, golden, or transitional in color, depending on the season. Cavernous sandstone outcrops dot the meadow on the left and the slope on the right. The shapes of some suggest grotesque skulls and other figures. The path through the meadow soon flanks busy Laguna Canyon Road, climbs south to an exposed earthquake fault, and returns you to your starting point.
trip 4.3 Emerald Canyon
Distance 8 miles (out-and-back)
Hiking Time 4 hours
Elevation Gain 1,400’
Difficulty Moderately strenuous
Trail Use Cyclists, equestrians
Best Times November–May
Agency OC Parks: LCWP
Permit OC Parks parking fee required
DIRECTIONS Park at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park’s Willow Canyon staging area on the west side of Laguna Canyon