Rancho Santa Margarita: Life Can Be a Walk in the Park

Rancho Santa Margarita is home to 12 parks, including one with a 13-acre lake and swim lagoon. But the prettiest spot in town might be an open field left to its own devices. Just north of the appropriately named Avenida de las Flores, springtime splays a carpet of wildflowers that seems to stretch clear to the Santa Ana Mountains.

The Trabuco Creek Regional Trail offers access just north of Trabuco Mesa Park, where Avenida de las Flores intersects Antonio Parkway. It’s for hikers and cyclists and is open 7 a.m. to sunset.

Rancho Santa Margarita is flanked by 3,000-acre O’Neill Regional Park, with its extensive trail system and host of outdoor activities. It’s open 7 a.m. to sunset for day use activities. Attendants are available to arrange overnight camping, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. $10 to $12.

The day-use fee is $2 per carload on weekdays; $4 on weekends; $5 on holidays. Call (949) 858-9365.

Getting there: Take the Foothill Transportation Corridor to Santa Margarita Parkway and go east. Or from the Santa Ana Freeway, take Alicia Parkway east to Santa Margarita Parkway.

Fountain Valley / Mecca for Reptile Lovers and the Curious

OK, so a 20-foot snake that can swallow small mammals isn’t everyone’s idea of the ideal house pet. But for some people, connecting with an animal that’s the opposite of cuddly is entirely the point. They dare to be different and pine for the exotic. And if their pursuits are reptilian or amphibian, they will probably feel at home in Fountain Valley, where scaly skin and an appetite for mealworms are not necessarily unattractive traits.

“The stigma of reptiles is how I make a living in this business,” said Jay Vella, owner of Prehistoric Pets (18822 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley, [714] 964-3525). People like to enjoy an animal other people might find frightening, Vella said. His store has a slogan: “If it hops, crawls, wiggles or gives your mom the chills, we probably have it.” One look in the window and you can tell this isn’t your typical pet store. In one display, more than a dozen iguanas lounge on rocks, across branches and at the top of a waterfall. Another houses a 400-plus-pound Galapagos tortoise, which shares a mock-rock enclosure with a couple of his smaller brethren. Between the two displays is a 2,000-gallon pond, home to 50-pound catfish, similarly sized South American pacu and a variety of turtles, who periodically climb from the water and rest on the back of a basking monitor lizard.

But that’s just the beginning. Explore more deeply and it’s like taking a 5,000-square-foot tour of the crawly, wiggly world.

There are Argentine boas (around $200), reticulated pythons (an albino one goes for $7,500) and a Cuban rock iguana named Diesel. The animals with names aren’t for sale, but that still leaves more than 1,000 exotic pets from which to choose.

For those who’d rather rent than own, Prehistoric Pets offers a Jurassic Party service. For $150 an hour, employees will bring 12 to 14 animals to your next get-together, so you can feed a chameleon or pet a tarantula. Or you can book a party inside the store for $225. Vella said his store books five to 10 such parties every weekend.

Prehistoric Pets is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.

Across town, Walter Allen maintains his reptile collection, but his tastes are a bit more specific. Turtles and tortoises have the run of the place at Casa de Tortuga (10455 Circulo de Zapata, [714] 962-0612). Allen’s collection features more than 800 armored animals, representing about 100 species. He has so many that he and his wife, Irma, own adjoining lots--one house and yard for themselves (and a few of their pets) and another for the rest of their collection.

Breeds run from the exotic, such as the side-necked turtle that has an elbow in its neck, pulls its head in sideways and has whiskers like a catfish, to the common and somewhat diminutive box turtle and Russian tortoise. Then there are the big boys and girls: the oversized spur thigh, Galapagos and Aldabra tortoises. The last of these can grow to 600 pounds. One Aldabra was given to the casa by singer Michael Jackson. A paid staff of four and many more volunteers take care of the collection and the casa, which although it’s private, features free public tours at 10 a.m. every day but Sunday and an open house each September. Tour reservations are a must, Allen emphasizes, because there’s just too much interest in the collection to allow visitors to show up unannounced. For tour reservations, call (714) 962-0612.

Getting there: To reach Casa de Tortuga, exit the San Diego Freeway at Brookhurst Street and go north to Slater Avenue. Turn right onto Slater, left at Ward and left again at Circulo de Zapata. Casa de Tortuga is on the right. Look for the turtle-shaped wind catchers and the turtle doorbell at the gate.

*

* Looking for a new neighborhood to explore? Here are a few suggestions, culled from recent stories. Complete stories can be accessed at https://www.calendarlive.com/go/ discover.

*

* A new Discover Orange County will run next Sunday in the Orange County Calendar.