Ladera Ranch Trail

Today we rode on a ‘new patch of dirt’ in Ladera Ranch. Park at Wagsdale Park located at Cecil Pasture and O’Neill. It seemed that the “public” restrooms were only accessible with a Ladera Ranch key card. The trail itself is about 2.5 miles one-way and is a series of hills (be prepared to pant) that ends up with a great view of San Juan Capistrano and the ocean. The trail is crushed granite, separate from the road and runs through the Ladera Ranch neighborhoods. At the top of the mountain there are some additional trail options. On this trip, we turned south and took the trail back to Antonio Parkway on the back side of Covenant Hills. The first public street along Antonio is O’Neill and, if you take it, you can get back to the park. This made a great loop.

After the ride, I would also recommend stopping at Taco Mesa at Crown Valley and O’Neill for chips and homemade guacamole on the outside patio.

Other than disturbing a large group of turkey vultures, there wasn’t too much in the way of interesting wildlife spottings. The association had recently mowed the hills for fire prevention so I am thinking that the snakes and ground birds moved out to the surrounding mountains.