Mini Trail Guide #23: How is this even where we live?

A tiny hike where you might ask yourself this question!

I met my husband at UCI and we got married while we were still students. So I have college memories of lots of OC places! Over our marriage (30 years now!) we’ve lived in LA County for a while and out-of-state a couple of times, but we came back to OC when our oldest started Kindergarten and our youngest was 2 1/2 years old. This tiny hike brings back so many memories of exploring when they were tiny kids . . . from when I first started the blog in 2008! It was also a location of one of my Nature Play Club outings which lots of the families still remember a decade later.

The protection of our local nature means I get to go back to these places and they still look relatively the same as I remember. They still support the native wildlife. And, in this case, it’s a “hotspot for biodiversity” which means that you can see such an amazing range of wildlife here that you can’t find in other places on our planet. It makes me feel hopeful that things are mostly the same. We need to work on the trash and the plastics that wash into these wetlands (but it’s protected so don’t go off trail unless it’s an organized event with permission). And I’m sure volunteers who maintain and work to keep up these places wouldn’t complain if they got some help!

I hope this week’s tiny hike inspires you to take care of our world and brings you joy & sunshine!