Steep elevation, uneven footing, rock formations and wildlife are what OC residents confront when they hike Fremont Canyon.
What they find is unique.
Located on the outskirts of Irvine Regional Park, the nature preserve can only be accessed on docent-led activities and hikes.
“Fremont Canyon is very remote, where few people have gone,” said Joan Steiner, an Irvine Ranch Conservancy (IRC) docent leading a hike through the canyon’s Coal Mine Trail.
“You can get to areas where there is no phone reception, and you cannot reach anybody by radio,” she said.
“The scenery is just spectacular, it’s a true wilderness experience.”
However, it’s not as popular as other hikes.
That’s because of the terrain and elevation, according to IRC Spokesman Scott Graves.
But that doesn’t stop the regularly scheduled hikes.
“We do regularly host a wide range of activities in Fremont Canyon,” said Graves in an email. “However, the area is more remote and rugged due to the terrain, so we aren’t able to host as many activities with lower difficulty ratings.”
The conservancy rates their hikes on a scale of 1-5 depending on the distance, elevation and terrain.
The nature preserve’s habitat – home to Scrub Oak, Chaparral Beargrass, Manzanita and other flora – expands into Cleveland National Forest and Chino Hills State Park, acting as a corridor for mountain lions and other wildlife to travel through.
Other wildlife such as the Speckled Rattlesnake and Spiny Granite Lizard can be found in the canyon’s rocky outcroppings.
Hikers can reach the Fremont Canyon Weather Station on the Coal Mine Trail.
This station, which operates using solar-powered sensor towers, records weather conditions in the area. In severe Santa Ana wind events, wind gusts have measured over 90 miles an hour.
Residents also pass remnants of the county’s history along the trail, like an abandoned coal mine that was operational in the late 1800s to early 1900s.
“The area has a history of mining, particularly for coal. The Coal Mine Trail is named for this feature: a century-old mining operation,” said Matilde De Santiago, Program Coordinator in Restoration Enhancement with IRC, in an email.
The Black Star Mining Company operated the surface coal mine – where the surface was scraped for resources and transported by mules to Anaheim up to San Francisco.
The land is just one area of the county’s wilderness tracts owned by OC Parks where the mining company operated.
[Read: Discovering Orange County’s Black Star Canyon Wilderness Park]
The surface mine did not operate long, according to De Santiago. All that remains today is a vein of coal visible along the trail.
Residents can also participate in volunteer stewardship opportunities in the area when offered.
“Stewardship opportunities offer the public the chance to work with the species of special concern, Tecate Cypress. This hardy-looking Cypress has small cones that release their seeds in response to a specific environmental trigger: fire,” said De Santiago.
“Too frequent of fires in this area over the last century has caused this delicate tree to become stunted for future growth, limiting its chances of survival.”
Over the past two years, the canyon’s staging area became home to an enhancement project where several Tecate Cypress and Coast Live Oak seedlings were planted.
Although there currently no stewardship activities scheduled in the area, there are other stewardship activities in the Irvine Ranch Open Space and hikes in Fremont Canyon.
Erika Taylor is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow and photojournalist. You can find her on Instagram @camerakeepsrolling or email at etaylor@voiceofoc.org