The Source for Laguna Beach Trails

Your Source for Laguna Beach Trails

LaugunaTrails.com is your source for information about trail networks accessible by foot from the village of Laguna Beach, California. In addition to trail descriptions and photographs, LagunaTrails.com also discusses the natural and human history of the region through which you will hike. Frequently updated, LagunaTrails.com is a great site to bookmark if you like to hike in Laguna Beach, Calfiornia.

Use the top three links on the navigation bar on the left for "Trails", "Natural History" and "Human History" to navigate through the site. You can also use the "Related Links" to link to the official websites of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, O.C. Parks, Crystal Cove State Park and more. If you have any questions or suggestions, please e-mail us.

A Wilderness for the Walking

Willow Canyon, December 2008 Laguna Beach, California earned its reputation as a seaside resort town because of the natural beauty of the landscape. Luckily for us, the founders of the town--especially the artists--recognized that Laguna Beach needed to do all it could to preserve the grandeur painted by Nature's brushstrokes, and the result is a Southern California village surrounded by public lands for all to enjoy in perpetuity.

In particular, the 6,500-acre Laguna Coast Wilderness Park provides miles upon miles of trails which connect the Park to the greater South Coast Wilderness area. Containing prime examples of some of the last pristine coastal canyons in Southern California, the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is a local treasure not to be missed. A walk in the Park can take one from chaparral to coastal sage scrub to oak woodlands and even riparian zones in a single morning.

Owned by The City of Laguna Beach, The County of Orange, and the California Department of Fish & Game, the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is part of the greater South Coast Wilderness area, which includes Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, Crystal Cove State Park, The City of Irvine Open Space and Irvine Ranch Wildlands and Parks, and Laguna Coast.

Natural and Human History Not to Miss!

Whether its precipitous heights with long views of coastline or oak-shaded canyons which can provide refuge on even the warmest summer day, LagunaTrails.com will tell you where and when to go, but it will also tell you what to look for while on the trail. From birds to reptiles to mammals, a variety of fauna can be observed throughout the park by the observant hiker.

Likewise, the diversity of flora is remarkable, especially as it changes with the seasons. At LagunaTrails.com, our goal is to catalog the animals you may see in the park in short articles that will enrich your hiking experience whether you see the animal or not.

In addition to the natural history, the human history is astounding. The entire area was, at one time, part of Rancho San Joaquin, which was granted to Jose Sepulveda in 1830. James Irvine and partners bought Rancho San Joaquin during the Great Drought of 1865 and operated it for more than a century as a working cattle ranch. While much of the land has been developed (and continues to be developed) large tracts of land have also been preserved and our accessible to the general public. Here at LagunaTrails.com , we believe that learning about the human history of the land enriches one's experience while walking through it.