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Feast on Nature in Park, Then on Persian Food

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<i> Benjamin Epstein is a free-lance writer who contributes frequently to the Times Orange County Edition. </i>

If the antidote for civilization is wilderness, rugged Santiago Oaks Regional Park offers a good dose. The trail system seems to go forever, and to places with names like Robbers Roost. If you gotta go back to civilization, it may as well be Persian, and the “fine Persian cuisine” at Darya; start with a bite of raw onion and end with refreshing faloodeh --”shredded iced starch in sugar.”

10 to 10:10: Windes Drive wends its way among homes for the horsy set and ends at the Santiago Oaks park office. Stop in to get a map and to admire the stuffed bobcat and great horned owl.

“Bob Bobcat is running around out there,” noted park ranger Kathy Vanderpool. “I’ve seen him, and he’s beautiful. And on our campfire walk the other night we saw two juvenile great horned owls, two babies, just at the beginning of the dam trail.”

Must be some trail. Vanderpool was in fact referring to the path to County Historic Landmark No. 151, a submerged dam built in 1879. She suggested a visit to the nature center, a hike to the dam and, energy permitting, a more demanding jaunt to Robbers Roost, called Robbers Peak on official maps.

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There, she said, “once upon a time, robbers and outlaws hung out, when they’d stole the gold and run away.” A fairy tale? You decide.

10:10 to 10:30: In the nature center are a stuffed redtail hawk with a snake, also stuffed, in its beak, and a stuffed opossum and badger. In the center of the center is a display of “undifferentiated sespe and vaqueros” rocks; while they indeed seem undifferentiated, the vaqueros apparently contains “fossil evidence of the past.”

A “Gabrielenos Indian Nature Market” exhibit shows how the county’s indigenous people used mugwort instead of Bayer aspirin for headaches, poison oak for Rit Dye Black 15, amole instead of Ivory soap, and ground-up coast live oak acorns instead of Gold Medal All Purpose Enriched White Flour. “Just the Bare Facts About Grizzly Bears” includes the only known photograph of a Santa Ana grizzly--oddly enough called “Little Black Bear”--and notes that famous bear hunter Jonathan Watson killed a grizzly at Robbers Peak.

10:30 to 10:45: Outside the center are shaded picnic tables and places to tie your horse. Before hitting that dam trail, there are drinking fountains for people and remarkably similar fountains for horses. And note the posted warnings: “Mountain Lion Country a Risk,” “Rattlesnakes May Be Found” and “Ticks Occur.”

One rather large sign along the trail identified surrounding vegetation as poison oak. Critters abounded. Lizards did pushups in the middle of the path, baby lizards skittered about, squirrels scurried, woodpeckers pecked, and other birds flitted from branch to branch. Arachnophiles would have admired fairly sizable, colorful spiders in amazingly engineered webs.

Signs at the Carpenter Serrano dam say not to wade in the water, but the murky pool would dissuade most comers anyway. Dragonflies patrol the surface, only occasionally coming to light on the rocky shorelet.

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The use of the dam by people was discontinued in 1976, but it now serves as a source of water for park animals.

10:45 to noon: Near the dam is a set of steps. I took them, and within minutes I didn’t know where the heck I was. There are few directional signs in the park; if you have a destination in mind, the rangers in the office can mark your map, but that still might not help a whole lot.

I headed in what I felt might possibly be the general direction of Robbers Roost.

Trails seemed to go nowhere, everywhere and anywhere, but by always taking the steepest choice possible, I eventually happened upon what seemed an ideal roost for robbers. It was a dramatic 360-degree lookout, and at the points of a compass that I didn’t have were stables, power lines, the Villa Park dam and five ridgelines receding into the distance.

Notorious bandits such as Joaquin Murieta and Three Finger Jack, who terrorized local communities and preyed upon the Butterfield Stage in the late 1800s, easily spotted sheriff’s posses from such a vantage.

Noon to 1: You can plan a takeout feast on the nature center picnic tables, or you can enjoy a complete change of scenery, and air conditioning, at newly remodeled Darya.

Dough, a yogurt drink with mint, will cool you down from your hike. Eating those raw onions on the table may cause somewhat dubious breath, but the torshi appetizer--aged pickles, carrots, cauliflower, eggplants and herbs in grape vinegar ($2.50)--will literally take your breath away.

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Kebabs are $7 to $13, but “daily dishes” are $7 to $9, and the same dishes served at lunchtime on weekdays are in the $6 range. Fesenjan is cooked walnuts in pomegranate sauce served with chicken and a huge mound of basmati rice.

Baghali polo is rice mixed with dill weed and lima beans and comes with lamb shanks. Adas polo, rice mixed with raisins, lentils, dates and saffron, came with chicken unfortunately baked dry; ask for a little broth on the side.

Squeeze a little lemon in your faloodeh ($2.50), a rose water, shredded noodle dessert, and bring the meal to a delightful end.

3-Hour Tour

1. Santiago Oaks Regional Park

2145 N. Windes Drive, Orange (714) 538-4400

Open daily 7 a.m. to sunset; nature center open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

2. Darya Restaurant

1840 N. Tustin Ave., Orange (714) 921-2773

Open Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Friday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to midnight.

Parking / Buses

Parking: There is ample parking in lots at both locations. There is a $2 entry fee per vehicle at Santiago Oaks.

Buses: OCTA Bus 50 runs north and south along Tustin Avenue with a stop at Taft Avenue.

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