Nature Still Reigns in This Oak Canyon

The two tracts of Anaheim Hills land are a modern study in contrasts. On one side of Walnut Canyon Road is the Anaheim Hills Golf Course, closely tended, carefully groomed, a series of finely sculpted undulating carpets of uniform green fairways and minutely clipped and pampered greens. It is a place where the cooing of quail is something that upsets your putting stroke and a 3-iron is needed to deal with rattlesnakes.

On the other side of the road is the Oak Canyon Nature Center, where both the quail and the snakes, if they show up in the right place at the right time, likely will get a free meal and a few hundred curious looks each week.

Part of the Anaheim city parks systems, the nature center is one corner of Anaheim Hills where the original tenants--the local animals--still hold the lease. In a highly developed residential section of Orange County, it has remained a place where humans are still the visitors.

Set into a canyon in one of the hills, the nature center is covered by nearly 6 miles of hiking trails, many of which border a stream that cascades along the canyon bottom. It is a specialized sort of park, said center director Cathy Glasgow, in that it exists primarily to satisfy the sense of sight. Picnicking, cycling, smoking, pets, rock or leaf collecting and other activities that are often permissible in other city parks are taboo in an area in which field mice and frogs run the show.

“Take away only memories; leave nothing but footprints” is the primary rule posted at the entrance to the center.

Not that there aren’t opportunities for hands-on activities. Just inside the entrance is a building housing the facility’s interpretive center, a combination museum and classroom designed primarily for schoolchildren. On display are dozens of live and mounted birds, reptiles, rodents and other animals (mounted specimens were found dead in the wild, Glasgow said), as well as areas set up for games and other activities, such as a microscope table, relevant to the study of nature.

Most of the center’s visitors, Glasgow said, are elementary school children, who are taken on guided tours by one of the center’s 10 part-time naturalists. But, she added, programs are also available for adults, handicapped visitors and senior citizens. These programs are offered by prior arrangement, and fees are set at $1 to $3.20 per person, depending upon the length of the tour--45 minutes to 3 hours--and the variety of subjects covered by the naturalists.

However, Glasgow said, many visitors, particularly on weekends, come simply to walk one or all of the eight trails that wind through the canyon. She cautioned that walkers should familiarize themselves with poison ivy and poison oak, both indigenous to the canyon, and should stay on the trails to avoid contact with either. Also, she said, in warmer weather rattlesnakes are sometimes seen, although they tend to shy away from contact with humans and usually present no danger to on-trail hikers.

OAK CANYON NATURE CENTER AT A GLANCE

Where: 6700 E. Walnut Canyon Road, Anaheim.

Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 7 days a week.

Activities: Guided tours of various lengths, offered primarily for school-age children. Available by reservation only. Saturday and seasonal topical programs also available.

Rules: Picnicking, alcohol, pets, smoking, firearms, fireworks and collecting of specimens are prohibited.

Information: (714) 998-8380 or (714) 999-5191.