In Anaheim Hills off of Serrano and Nohl Ranch by Anaheim Hills Elementary School there are some trails. If you are going South on Nohl Ranch, you can see it to the left of the Elementary School.
Those trails connect to the Irvine Park Trails, and then you can go on the street a little bit and run Peter's Canyon. really fun.
Also another entrance is off of Mabury Ave. go west on Serrano and then left on Orange Park. you'll see the trail entrance when you hit Marbury.
New Port Back Bay
You can get it off of Jamboree and East Bluff.
Not many variations, but cool place to run.
This site has maps of the major parks.
http://www.ocparks.com/trails/default.asp?Show=ParkTrailMaps
Mile Square Park
Fountain Valley
it should be renamed to mile squared park because its perimeter equals 4 miles, each side equaling a mile.
you can run around the park for a 4 miler, do mile repeats on the grass etc etc good for your recovery runs.
I have to show some love to my beloved Huntington Beach Central Park east side. Too many memories of workouts, races and make out sessions there. My first kiss was there. My first time breaking 16 was also on that course.
The Central Park westside, where the library is located, also has some stuff. I remember there was an invitational or two there, but i dont remember much of it.
General Thomas F Riley Wilderness Park
off the 5 go east on Oso Pkwy
pretty cool place to run.
wow, I forgot to check back on this thread. Thanks guys.
i love this! keep it going guys!
WOW some good stuff here.
the bad news is many of these took a SERIOUS beating this last week.....parts of the beach in Laguna are gone, and El Moro took a whallop as well. But it is an amazing place to run.
You can get off of the asphalt for most of the back bay loop in newport.
Bolsa Chica wetlands also has a few trails but El Morro is my personal favoritte.
This thread is perfect timing as I have a business trip to Irvine, CA 1st two weeks of March. Staying at Main Street where is crosses the San Diego River. Here are some questions for you locals after my initial research.
1. My best running option is southwest on the river trail...yes? Not inland???
2. Duck Ponds & nature preserve are a must...yes?
3. What section of UCI has most open space - the north & west area of campus...yes?
4. Satellite map shows open space around Concordia U. - good for running? Map shows Tom Morris (wong name) Regional Park just west of Concordia...is this actually Irvine County Park?
5. Do the "name" parks in the area (Aliso Woods, Crystal Cove, etc) charge a day entry fee?
6. I'm having little success finding a "sub-elite" roadrace in SoCal the weekend of March 6 & 7 - any suggestions?
7. Anyone experienced Deep Creek Hot Springs near Hesperia?
I would appreciate your feedback/local knowledge...thanks.
My contribution to this thread - I am familiar with Fountain Valley Square Mile Park from a previous business trip. Chose my hotel based on proximity to only green space I could find on map. Certainly the best option in FV. Gets a lot of use from families. Road entrances frequent. A perimeter trail of caliche or crushed brick would be an asset. Overall - decent.
Peace...OUT!
1. You can go inland or towards the back bay. Each half mile is marked starting at Corona Del Mar High School. At Main and the bike trail you are at about mile marker 4.7 or so.
If you go inland, you have an option just passed the police station at around mile marker 5 1/2 to go right or left after you go over a bridge. If you go left, you go around a rollar hockey rink and the path turns to dirt and follows a creek bed. You have to over the street (Irvine) once but otherwise you can run up that trail to Peter's Canyon without having to deal with any traffic. One spot does get muddy though. If you go right, you can go out past mile marker 10 (but I think that mile marker has been slurried over and isn't there right now) and only have to deal with traffic at two streets that don't have a lot of traffic. When you get to about 8.8 or so mile marker would be you go through a tunnel and do a loop thing and then have to cross the bridge and run on the other side of the creek bed.
If you head towards the beach, you can run to Newport Back Bay.
2. The Duck Ponds trails are worth checking out but isn't that big of an area. There are lots of trails so you don't have to repeat the same one but it isn't a huge area. If you pop out at Campus and the San Diego Creek bed, you can go under Campus and run on Irvine Coast Trail along the creek bed down to the Newport Back Bay. You can run on dirt all the way to the street Galaxy and go through that neighborhood and do a loop around the bay if you want to go long.
The must runs in the area I'd suggest are El Moro. Start at the top of Ridge Park in Newport Coast and you won't have to pay for parking. The close the park after rain so I hope it doesn't rain while you are here. You can do all sorts of different runs from there. Look up above for the links to the parks for maps of those trails. The top of Ridge Park is Bommer Ridge.
3) Most of the trails behind UCI have been developed by the University and only a few still exist and aren't that great now. If you know the area well, there are still good trails from the campus and near the campus -(Turtle Ridge, Turtle Rock, Shady Canyon) but it isn't worth it to try to describe them.
4. Satellite map shows open space around Concordia U. - good for running? Map shows Tom Morris (wong name)
Regional Park just west of Concordia...is this actually Irvine County Park?
No. Irvine County Park is at a completely different area. Mason Park (the park below Concordia) is okay for running. Those tails allow you do do a nice loop if you want to run some on the San Diego Creek Trail and some park on other trails. There are two foot bridges over the 405 that allow for good loops if you run through Mason Park. If you want to do an hour run or so, you can run some of the the Duck Ponds trails and cross the street and run on the grass at Mason Park across the street from UCI.
5. Do the "name" parks in the area (Aliso Woods, Crystal Cove, etc) charge a day entry fee?
You can park next to the Mormon church or up the street near the soccer field/school and not have to pay for parking if you want to run in Aliso Woods. You can park at the top of Ridge Park in Newport Coast up above the Pavillion's grocery store and not have to pay for parking.
I'd first do El Moro/Laguna Wilderness Area at Ridge Park before Aliso Woods.
Another spot you can consider trying that also would be closer than Aliso Woods is the Quail Hill Trail that starts at Sand Canyon/Shady Canyon which goes into Laguna Wilderness area Go south on the 405 and go towards Shady Canyon when you get off the freeway Go about 1/3 of a mile past the circle traffic thing and past the fire station on your right and there is a parking area with a restroom. Don't get confused by the map at the restroom. That is only a two mile loop. Run up the dirt trail uphill for about 300 meters or so that goes next to Shady Canyon and make a left and cross the street (Shady Canyon) there is a little pedestrial intersection and there is a trail head there (just above the soccer/baseball fields) that goes behind homes for about a half mile or so and then there is a steep uphill to your right. Go up the steep uphill and it turns into a single track trail for a bit and you cross a road that leads to a water tower and then it turns into a big fire road that follows a ridge in Bommer Canyon and Shady Canyon. It will be mostly uphill the first few miles then the trail turns to the right and it becomes pretty cool. If you keep going you get to a spot with 4 intersections. Go straight and you go uphill for a little bit and then you have an other option to keep going uphill or go down. Go down and go under the 73 toll road and it gets pretty cool on that trail too. You can do a few differet loops. Look above at the links to the parks and look for the Nix Nature Center map.
Urinal, thanks for your many responses - will print out and take with me.
cal coast has all levels of runners that meet to do a track workout at Corona Del Mar High School at 5:30 on Tuesday evenings.
a smaller group does tempo runs at 6:00 from the In-N-Out Burger at University Center (Bridge and Campus) on Thursday evenings. They jog a couple miles and then gather up at the 2 mile marker and most people run 4 miles at a good pace. There is a good range of people out most weeks so it is likely whatever pace you want to run a tempo someone will be near your pace. If it is rainy or there is a big local race the following weekend the group, gets pretty small though.
look at
for local races.
Thanks CC
anybody know the name of the trail that runs around Yorba Linda? It goes on Bastanchury, and then around the neighborhoods through East Lake etc etc.