One of the things I love about the New Year is it gives my husband and I the chance to talk about things we want to do with the kids in the upcoming year, and one of the things we decided on was taking more family hikes or nature walks together. I started looking for great orange county hikes for kids and we came found a gem of a hike in Riley Wilderness Park.
Riley Wilderness Park
I went online and started searching for Orange County hikes for kids and came across this great list of top 5 family friendly hikes in Orange County, which is where we found this hike.
Riley Wilderness Park can be found at the end of Oso Parkway is in the foothills adjacent to the Coto de Caza gates.
When you near the end of Oso before you can turn left or right to go into Coto, keep your eyes out for an entrance to the park on the right hand side.
Parking is $3 where you pay by machine (bills, coins or Visa/MC).
From there you can find 5 miles of different trails to take with your family. This map will show you the mileage and difficulty of each one.
My girls are 5 and 8 and did great even on the trails with elevation, I would say even the ones marked moderate are fine for kids.
Along the trails we saw beautiful oak trees, birds, huge nests, lots of animal tracks and the hit of the hike, THREE deer grazing along the Horned Toad Loop!
With our recent rains, the hills were green and absolutely beautiful. It was an amazing hike for families. I highly recommend checking it out.
Stay tuned for more Orange County hiking adventures in this New Year!
For more information, visit www.ocparks.com/parks/thomas.
Would a jogging stroller be okay?
Definitely!! There are easier loops to take where a jogger would be perfect!
Thank you so much. We need to check this out.