The Foothills Are Alive With Lofty Oaks, Gurgling Streams

Total time: One to two hours, depending on duration of stops.

Distance: About 40 miles.

Level of difficulty: Easy.

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Forget the roads to Bali, Rio and Mandalay. This is the time of the year--when the blustery winds clear the skies between bouts of cloudiness--to gas up the chariot, top off the Thermos and hit the road to Orange County’s canyon country.

And, yes, Virginia, Orange County does have same. It isn’t all housing developments and shopping malls, despite what slaves to the I-5 commuter crawl might think.

In fact, there are curves and esses and gurgling streams and towering oaks and picturesque canyon cottages galore in the foothills of the Cleveland National Forest beneath the twin peaks of Santiago and Modjeska (commonly lumped together and called, erroneously, Saddleback Peak).

There are rustic canyon stores, a famous biker bar (the bikers these days are more likely to be barristers than barroom brawlers), a famous Shakespearean actress’ hideaway, a wildlife sanctuary and a pair of monasteries--one run by the Norbertine order of Roman Catholic priests, the other by the Ramakrishna monks whose independent order is a branch of Hinduism.

Our route also includes what may well be the prettiest stretch of road in Southern California--a nearly three-mile piece of Live Oak Canyon Road near the entrance to O’Neill Regional Park that has been turned into a sun-dappled tunnel by the ancient oaks that line its shoulders.

But enough of the rhapsodizing.

There are three easily navigable canyons in these foothills, all heading eastward off a main drag, Santiago Canyon Road, that by itself makes for a nice country drive for much of its length. The region can be entered from the north via Chapman Avenue in Orange, accessible from California 55 (Costa Mesa Freeway). Or day trippers can enter from the south via El Toro Road, which has a convenient offramp on the Interstate 5 just south of its confluence with Interstate 405.

This drive started in the north, the odometer stopped down to zero where Chapman Avenue crosses Jamboree Road and becomes County Highway S18, otherwise known as Santiago Canyon Road. You start heading uphill here, through a series of sweeping curves. The first landmark is Irvine Lake, about three miles up the road. Part of Orange County’s massive water management system, it drains the canyons and serves as a popular fishing lake.

The road here is so gentle that you can easily blow the posted speed limit by a big margin if you don’t pay attention to your throttle foot and the speedometer. The scenery is sere Southern California hillsides, wrinkled with gullies and dotted with sycamores and live oak.

At 6.3 miles, the turnoff for Silverado Canyon pops up. It’s a sharp left against traffic that is coming at you from a long curve.

Silverado Canyon Road starts twisting pretty quickly and stays that way for most of the drive into the canyon. Look for the abandoned barn and outbuildings about two miles into the canyon and veer to the right at the “Y” at the village of Silverado, where you can find a country store and a cafe.

It’s about four more miles to the end of the canyon, and along the way the road is bordered by canyon dwellers’ homes, with Silverado Creek crossing back and forth among the aspens, sycamores and sugar maples that forest the canyon.

The road ends in a circular turnabout that also serves as a parking lot for hikers and mountain bikers who take off into the Cleveland National Forest wilderness area. From here, merely backtrack through the canyon.

Take a left when you return to Santiago Canyon Road (about 18 miles on the odometer) and head southeast. That’s Santiago Creek on the right.

The turnoff for Modjeska Canyon, the second and shortest of the three canyon drives, comes up at 21.8 miles. It is a narrow, twisting drive with a lot of homes up close to the road, so take it slowly. There is a small store in the canyon, and shortly after passing it, you’ll hit a confusing intersection of three roads--just keep bearing left and stay on Modjeska Canyon Road. It is very narrow through here, and residents have posted signs to warn drivers to keep an eye out for livestock and people. A favorite is the “Peacock and Chicken Crossing” sign tacked to a post in the village.

The road ends at the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary, a nonprofit operation that incudes a nature center, hiking trails and a bird-watching area. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Just before the sanctuary is a small cross street called Olive Hill Road. If you take a right, you can follow the signs to Arden, the retreat of the late actress Helena Modjeska.

Now head back out the canyon, but instead of sticking to Modjeska Canyon Road at the three-way intersection, take a sharp left and head up Modjeska Grade Road for a short climb that takes you to the top of a hill and provides a great aerial view of what Orange County was and what it is becoming--empty hills and canyons to the north, a sea of red tile rooftops to the south.

You’re back on Santiago Canyon Road after 1.2 miles. Turn left, and head for Live Oak Canyon Road. The junction is clearly marked--that’s Cook’s Corner on the left, a regionally famous roadhouse whose parking lot is jammed with motorcycles and their riders on weekends and with locals’ cars and pickups at lunch and dinner on weekdays. Take a left, and you’ll be on County Highway S19--Live Oak Canyon Road, which leads to O’Neill Park and, if you don’t turn around there, will take you up a steep series of switchbacks and onto the broad mesa where developers have built the communities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Coto de Caza and Dove Canyon.

We’re not going that far, however. At 27.6 miles on the odometer you’ll enter “The Tunnel,” that stretch of Live Oak Canyon Road canopied with the arching branches of the trees that give the canyon its name. It’s a twisting stretch of road, with the big boles of the oaks crowding close on both sides, so take it slow and enjoy the view. At the 32-mile mark, you’ll hit the entrance to O’Neill Regional Park and the official end of our trip.

From there, you can backtrack out to Santiago Canyon Road and turn left to return to Chapman Avenue or turn right (S18 changes names there and becomes El Toro Road) and head down to the San Diego Freeway.

John O’Dell can be reached via e-mail at john.odell@latimes.com.