Paradise Lost? : Superhighway Proposed for ‘Grand Canyon of Orange County’

Old-timers call it “the Grand Canyon of Orange County.”

Nestled in the Chino Hills of far northeastern Orange County, the walls of Soquel Canyon plunge as much as 1,000 feet. Pristine woodlands of oak and walnut line the canyon bottom, providing a sanctuary for mule deer, mountain lion and bobcat. Accessible only by foot, the canyon is virtually unknown, even to many nearby residents.

“It is probably one of the most beautiful places that I have hiked anywhere in California,” said Joachim Smith, a Chino Hills painter and art professor. “In the springtime of the year, nothing beats it.”

Soquel Canyon is far more lush and green--even during the region’s current drought--than other canyons in the area because it is narrower and steeper and remains longer out of the sunlight, said Jack Bath, a Cal Poly Pomona biology professor who has studied the canyon.

The steepness of the canyon walls has also fostered wildlife unparalleled in Southern California. The walls are too steep for grazing and also limit the activity of hawks and other airborne predators, allowing small animals such as rabbits and squirrels to proliferate, Bath said. Other wildlife species, like raccoons, skunks, rattlesnakes, lizards, quail and dove, also inhabit the canyon.

The hillsides are covered with hundreds of coast live oak, native black walnut and sycamore trees, said Jim Barry, a Placentia arborist who also has studied the canyon. “And it is a young, healthy stand of forest that’s maturing,” Barry said. “In other words, it’s not senile. Its best days are ahead.”

“You do not get a sense at all that 15 million people are just over the rim,” said Claire Schlotterbeck, president of Hills for Everyone, a local environmental group that helped create the nearby Chino Hills State Park. “It’s just a wonderful sense of peace and quiet in there.”

But development has crept so close that, atop a ridge of the canyon, one can see the red-tiled rooftops of a Yorba Linda housing project. Looking east, bulldozed hillsides testify to San Bernardino County’s overall plans for 25,000 new homes in the vicinity. And transportation planners in Orange and San Bernardino counties are exploring the possibility of building a new, six-lane highway through the canyon, which belongs to private landowners.

Schlotterbeck’s group, concerned about the development pressures, is pushing for inclusion of Soquel Canyon in the adjoining Chino Hills State Park, 10,000 acres of rolling woodlands and canyons. Soquel Canyon is almost as large: It covers approximately 9,000 acres, straddling Orange and San Bernardino counties in a triangular shape that stretches from east to west.

The major obstacle facing the group in preserving the canyon is money.

While he expresses support for acquiring Soquel Canyon, Don Murphy, state Parks and Recreation district superintendent for Chino Hills, said his agency has no current plans to try to do so.

“It is a significant canyon, and, if it was available, we would take it,” Murphy said.

Another uncertainty looming over any acquisition is the outcome of the proposal to carve a superhighway through the canyon. Known on planning maps as Soquel Canyon Parkway, the proposal entails an eight-mile highway connecting Brea with Chino, running the length of Soquel Canyon. The highway would lie on the narrow canyon bottom, obliterating centuries-old stands of oak and walnut trees that line both sides of a year-round stream.

“The ultimate result of development in Soquel Canyon will be the loss and fragmentation of sensitive habitat. This, the impacts of development . . . are considered significant,” says an environmental impact report prepared for the Chino Hills Specific Plan.

Two alternatives to the Soquel Canyon highway through Chino Hills--all proposed as commuter alternatives to the badly congested Riverside Freeway--are in Tonner Canyon farther north. Currently, the only existing alternative to the Riverside Freeway is Carbon Canyon Road, but that two-lane road is so overcrowded that rush-hour traffic routinely backs up for miles.

All three proposed routes are under study by Orange and San Bernardino counties, which would jointly assist in the financing. An engineering consultant’s report is due in September.

While recognizing the scenic value of Soquel Canyon, local politicians say there may be no choice but to destroy it.

“It is absolutely beautiful, but we’ve got to have a transportation corridor to serve the Chino Hills,” said Larry Walker, a San Bernardino County supervisor and former mayor of Chino.

Walker added that traffic is so congested in the area that planners may have to build roads through both Soquel and Tonner canyons, instead of one or the other.

And State Assemblyman Charles W. Bader (R-Pomona) said the demand for new transportation routes will only continue to grow as Chino Hills fills up with people. Bader said the tri-county population of the hills is projected to increase from 35,000 to 100,000 within the next few years. Part of the hills are located in Los Angeles County.

“Right now, it is just Carbon Canyon Road (going through the hills),” said Bader, whose district includes part of Chino Hills. “There is a need for an additional corridor.”

Kari Rigoni, a senior planner for Orange County, said county officials have not yet taken a position on which of the route alternatives the county supports. Rigoni added that any of the road alternatives would pose great building problems because of the rough topography that would have to be cut through.

“It’s definitely a problem that everybody is watching, not really knowing how we are going to solve it,” Rigoni said.

Schlotterbeck, who lives in nearby Olinda, nearly cried at the prospect of losing Soquel Canyon as she, her 7-year-old son, Nathan, and Chino Hills park ranger Spencer Gilbert took a four-wheel-drive tour along the south rim of the canyon one recent afternoon. Bouncing along the twisting fire road, Gilbert pointed out red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures as Nathan looked on excitedly.

“Nathan, I want you to keep your eye out for deer,” his mother admonished. “This is their land.”

Gilbert transferred into Chino Hills State Park last November after serving as a lifeguard at Huntington State Beach. Although the park is comparatively devoid of people, Gilbert said, he found the serenity so rejuvenating that he “got hooked” being there. He and his wife live in the park. At night, he said, the canyons are pitch-black, and they can see the stars.

“Living here is like living in an island really,” Gilbert said as he pulled his truck atop 1,685-foot-high Gilman Peak, where the view west is of the Orange County urban sprawl and the view east is of the Soquel Canyon wilderness.

“It’s wonderful. It’s beautiful,” added Jeff Williams, a Chino Hills man who was pedaling his mountain bike along the Soquel Canyon rim that day. “I hope it stays that way.”