Family-Friendly Hiking in Orange County

If you’re looking for something more adventurous than a walk around the block, here are three great locations for you to visit with your family. My kids are 3 and 6 (and sometimes lazy) but these are some of the adventures that inspired their legs to keep moving!

Bommer Canyon – I knew there was a trail near Turtle Rock Nature Center, I just wasn’t sure where. So we parked at Turtle Rock and followed the trail signs. We ended up taking the paved pedestrian path, the Shady Canyon Trail, to the Bommer Canyon Trailhead in Bommer Meadow. There is a small parking lot there at the trailhead near the intersection of Shady Canyon Drive and Bommer Canyon. The Bommer Meadow trail is easy with green rolling hills and a few rustic bridges. From this trail, you can connect to the Nature Loop trail which you can follow and loop back to the parking area. This will be just under 3 miles round trip if you park at the trailhead parking area. We turned back at the beginning of the nature loop, as we walked from Turtle Rock, so we had already put in 2 miles and knew our little ones would run out of steam if we did the entire stretch.  We look forward to going back though, and completing the nature loop as the scenery is beautiful and there’s plenty of room to run. Bikes do use this path also, so keep an eye out for oncoming traffic.

Santiago Oaks Regional Park – I love this place and I can’t wait to go back again. And again. Most of the trails that are near the creek are easy. We took the Santiago Creek Trail and looped back along the Bobcat Meadow Trail. We also hit the Historic Damn Trail, and the Windes Nature Trail. The Windes Nature Trail was probably the most difficult of the three. The Historic Damn Trail walks you right alongside a damn that was designed and built in 1879. If you’ve ever been to the Heritage Museum of Orange County, you’ll recognize the name Kellogg. The man who owned the Kellogg house was part of the damn building project. We went on a holiday so the nature center was closed, but the views here were absolutely lovely and my kids enjoyed every minute of it.

Oak Canyon Nature Center – This is one of my favorites. We’ve been multiple times and there are plenty of trails to change up the scenery from visit to visit. If you have a stroller, you can stick to the Main Road trail and the Heritage trail. These are mostly flat with lots of shade. The Stream trail is a nice shaded walk along the stream, and if I remember correctly, you could get away with a stroller on this one as well. Roadrunner Ridge takes you up above the canyon and is more challenging, but my kids managed this one and enjoyed getting a look at the caves on the hillside. There are some narrow parts next to the steep drop –off so be sure to hold hands here.

Crystal Cove – If you want something educational and interactive for the kids, Crystal Cove has an Environmental Study Loop. The accessible trail features eight field stations where you’ll learn about early residents, geology, weather, and wildlife. Turn at El Morro school and park in the Crystal Cove El Moro parking area (there is an entrance fee unless you have a State Parks Pass) and you will find the Loop located across the parking lot from the Amphitheatre. If you still want to keep walking after you finish the loop you can easily continue along and connect to one of the other trails after crossing over the bridge.

Do you have a favorite family hiking spot that’s great for kids? We’d love to hear about it!