LAGUNA NIGUEL : Ridgeline Dedicated as New County Park

Badlands Park, a rugged eight-acre parcel of sandstone ridgeline overlooking Laguna Beach, was dedicated as a county park Thursday afternoon by a group of local dignitaries including 5th District Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and Mayor Thomas W. Wilson.

The park’s name was attributed to longtime Laguna Beach activist Fred Lang, who called the entire ridgeline area the “badlands” because of its sandy, barren landscape that has been eroded over time by wind and rain. Lang, a landscape architect, led the fight to save the acreage from development in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“Fred Lang was a very aggressive, hard-working community leader who was a force in making sure Orange County had open space and parks,” Riley told the gathering. “This is another example of his work.”

Ten million years ago, in the Pliocene Age, the 780-foot ridgeline including the park was once part of a sandy beach, county park ranger Steve Conkling said. The cliffs in the park are rich in fossils because of the ocean’s presence in the area, he said.

“This entire coastal area has a vast paleontological history,” Conkling said. “It also has a long human history covering the past 10,000 to 14,000 years.”

The county acquired the property in two stages in the early 1980s, said Eric Jessen, chief of planning for the county Department of Harbors, Beaches and Parks. A 2.9-acre parcel was dedicated by the developer of Monarch Point, a custom home-site project next to the park, and the five other acres were later purchased by the county for $125,000, Jessen said.

The county has recently crisscrossed the property with marked trails and added benches and viewing areas that offer panoramic vistas north and south along the coast.

“Maybe this shouldn’t be called Badlands Park; it should be called Awesome View Park,” Wilson said.