Trabuco Canyon Is Suburban and Sylvan

The hike through Arroyo Trabuco Wilderness is an engaging experience, and the best way to walk this wild-land corridor is from O’Neill Regional Park to Oso Parkway across southern Orange County. With the help of a car shuttle, the hiker can enjoy a mostly downhill ramble from a nature center to a mini-mall, a journey from the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains to trail’s end near a Taco Bell.

On a recent down-canyon jaunt, I experienced a collision of images that included a murmuring creek, grand old oaks and sycamores, a doe and fawn browsing a flower-sprinkled meadow, as well as traffic rushing overhead on the Foothill Transportation Corridor toll road. In places, all traces of suburbia recede to a respectful distance, and the hiker is left in the company of chirping crickets, croaking frogs and twittering birds.

Part of this leafy retreat was fashioned by humans, not nature: Road builders were required to plant a couple of thousand native trees in the arroyo.

The soldier marching with Capt. Gaspar de Portola’s 1769 expedition who lost his firearm in this region would no doubt be amazed at the number of Orange County place names inspired by his mistake. Trabuco, which means “blunderbuss” in Spanish, now names a canyon, a creek, a plain, a wilderness, a trail and a road.

Here in the Arroyo Trabuco Wilderness, the modern trekker can explore a slice of the Southern California of two centuries ago.

A walk during the rainy season, with half a dozen knee-high or higher creek crossings, can be quite a muddy adventure. But spring is an excellent time to trek Arroyo Trabuco. The creek is sprightly, and its banks blossom with monkey flowers, California poppies and lush green grasses.

By summer, the arroyo is all but dry, and the temperature is too hot for pleasant hiking. In autumn, the arroyo’s numerous sycamores don their fall colors.

Directions to trail head: From Interstate 5 in El Toro, exit on El Toro Road and drive 7.5 miles to Live Oak Canyon Road (S-19). Turn right and proceed three miles to O’Neill Regional Park. (There is a vehicle entry fee of $2.) Follow the signs to the well-marked trail head.

If you intend to hike Arroyo Trabuco one way and would like to arrange a car shuttle, you’ll want to leave a vehicle or be met at the commercial center on the southeast corner of Oso Parkway and Antonio Parkway. Reach this intersection from Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo by exiting on Oso Parkway and traveling east a few miles.

The signed southern end of Arroyo Trabuco Trail is 0.3 mile west of Antonio Parkway on the north side of Oso Parkway. But there is no parking here, so you need to leave your vehicle at or near the mini-mall on the corner of Oso Parkway and Antonio Parkway. A variety of eateries offer food and refreshment.

The hike: Follow the wide path south under towering oaks and sycamores, then under the even more towering spans of the Foothill Transportation Corridor and Santa Margarita Parkway.

About two miles out, the path angles left up toward a canyon wall, topped by houses. A connector trail leads to Arroyo Vista (a street and trail head for residential access to the arroyo). After another mile of travel, the trail descends back toward the creek.

You’ll alternate between wide meadows and the corridor along the creek. After three creek crossings, you’ll cross under the Oso Parkway bridge, then immediately cross back to intersect a dirt road that ascends the west wall of the arroyo to trail’s end at Oso Parkway. Walk east 0.3 mile along the sidewalk to reach the mini-mall.

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Arroyo Trabuco Trail

WHERE: Arroyo Trabuco Wilderness, foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains.

DISTANCE: From O’Neill Park to Oso Parkway is 6 miles one way with 500-foot elevation loss.

TERRAIN: Oak-and sycamore-shaded canyon.

HIGHLIGHTS: Pastoral swath through southern Orange County.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Moderate.

PRECAUTIONS: Creek crossings can be difficult right after rains.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: O’Neill Regional Park, 30892 Trabuco Canyon Road, Trabuco Canyon, CA 92678; tel. (949) 858-9365.