Читать книгу Afoot and Afield: Orange County - Jerry Schad - Страница 18

trip 2.1 Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve

Distance 2.7 miles (loop)

Hiking Time 1½ hours

Elevation Gain 200’

Difficulty Easy

Trail Use Cyclists, dogs, good for kids

Best Times All year

Agency OC Parks: UNBNP

DIRECTIONS To reach Upper Newport Bay’s Muth Interpretive Center, exit the Costa Mesa Freeway (Highway 55) at Del Mar Avenue in Costa Mesa, and go east toward the bay. In 0.5 mile, Del Mar becomes University Drive. Continue 0.4 mile to reach the interpretive center parking lot just past Irvine Avenue.

Were it not for public protest in the 1960s and ’70s, Upper Newport Bay would surely have become yet another of Orange County’s residential harbor communities. Instead, the State of California purchased 752 acres of Irvine Company land in 1975, thus establishing the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve. An astounding 100 species of coastal and mudflat fish, as well as some 200 species of birds, frequent the shallow waters of the bay.

The well-designed Muth Interpretive Center offers exhibits explaining the significance of the estuary. Naturalists organize a variety of activities, including Tideland Tykes, birding, kayak tours, and service projects. Register for free in advance at letsgooutside.org.

The west side of the preserve is laced with a spiderweb of trails squeezed between the wetlands and Irvine Avenue. The longest, most interesting walk in the preserve involves making a loop of up to 3 miles along these trails. Follow the trail from the east end of the parking area down through a native butterfly garden to the Muth Interpretive Center. Below the interpretive center, you can follow a trail west along the wetlands. It soon climbs onto the bluff to circle the head of a ravine and reach a vista point. There’s a good view of the broad sweep of the bay’s channels and marshy islands, the steep bluffs rising from the far (east) shore, and the rolling San Joaquin Hills beyond.

Incised into the roughly 10-million-year-old marine sedimentary cliffs on the far side is a canyon that contained the largest assemblage of invertebrate fossils ever found in western North America. From sea level to their highest summits, the San Joaquin Hills exhibit eight distinct marine-terrace levels. You may recognize some of these, though massive grading for construction has greatly altered the land’s natural contours. During excavation for the Fashion Island shopping center at Newport Center (a cluster of high-rises), a great deal of petrified wood was uncovered.

Upper Newport Bay

At an easily missed fork just beyond, descend back to the wetlands, which teem with bird life. Follow the trail southward along the shoreline, crossing an inlet on a bridge, until you are forced away near a bluff-top subdivision. At the far south end of the trail, you can reach an alternative trailhead on Santiago Drive.

Loop back north along the paved Bayview Trail that parallels Irvine Avenue. This route is popular with cyclists and joggers, but hikers may prefer to veer onto the broad dirt bluff-top path between Bayview and the wetlands. Whatever route you take, you’ll eventually find yourself back at the parking area.

The north shore features a bayshore bikeway connecting Bayview Way with the west segment of University Drive. At one point, you pass over a massively timbered wood bridge spanning the marsh where it pinches against a steep, dry bluff. From that bridge, you can view three separate tiers of vegetation. The lowest is the usual low-growing, salt-tolerant group of plants like pickleweed and cordgrass. Just above the reach of the tide are plants typical of the coastal uplands, such as wild buckwheat, mulefat, and cattails. Above the level of the bridge, the bluff slope supports a dense growth of native coastal sage scrub vegetation: California sagebrush, lemonade berry, elderberry, prickly pear cactus, and cholla cactus (a coastal variant of the same cactus that grows abundantly throughout the California and Southwest deserts).