Brian & Ashley run a local hiking blog recording their adventures on the trails — in much the same style as I record our visits to parks and playgrounds.  The engaged couple share detailed directions to trailheads, photos, and maps of their hike.  When I  get the opportunity to go on walks or hikes – without the kids – Brian & Ashley’s Hiking Blog makes it easy to browse the spots to visit.

Orange County has some of the best open space and wilderness areas in Southern California. These open space and wilderness areas offer amazing hiking opportunities with great scenery and opportunities to view local wildlife. Best of all, many of the hiking trails in Orange County are perfect for the whole family to do together.  Here is a list of our Top 5 Family Friendly Hikes in Orange County.

1.) Riley Wilderness Park
This park is one of the true gems of Orange County and has a resident herd of deer that calls the park home. The trails are well maintained and you can make your hike as long or as short as you like. This park provides any family with a great opportunity to see local wildlife. Here is a hint, the deer like to hide under the oak trees during the day. In addition to hiking trails, the park has a great nature center with a great interpretive trail.

2.) Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park’s Pectin Reef Loop
This is a fun short hike that allows children the opportunity to look for fossils on a prehistoric reef. The trail is well maintained and this hike allows for a great educational opportunity on fossils.

3.) Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park’s Dripping Cave
This hike is just a little longer than the others, but it brings you back in time to when stage coaches were regularly robbed in this area. Robbers, who would rob local stage coaches going from San Diego to Los Angeles and would use Dripping cave as their hideout to escape capture from law enforcement. When you visit the cave, you can still see the burn marks from their camp fires located on the roof of the cave.

4.) James Dilley Preserve (Barbara’s Lake)
This is a fun hike to the only natural lakes in Orange County. This area is also known for having abundant wildlife and it is only a short trip away from the Nix Nature Center in the Laguna Coast Wilderness.

5.) Holy Jim Falls (Cleveland National Forest)
This is a great hike to one of Orange County’s Local Waterfalls. The trail meanders through Trabuco canyon and you are rewarded with a great waterfall. This is one of the most well known hikes in Orange County and it lives up to its reputation of being one of the best. (Note from Michele: Watch for poison oak!)

Please check out Brian & Ashley’s Hiking Blog! And, in case you missed it, I also invited OCExplorer.com and CAOpenSpace.org to post guest blogs on our site about Orange County’s outdoor spaces:

• Orange County Hiking Trails for Families (OC Explorer)
• Orange County Nature and Interpretive Centers (OC Explorer)
• Nature Preserves and Wildlife Sanctuaries (OC Explorer)
• CAOpenSpace.org: Photo Journal of OC’s Open Spaces

Do these hikes sound good, but you’d rather hike with a guide?  Please check out:

• Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks Activities List for tons of guided hikes with all sorts of different OC locations
• Joel Robinson and his volunteers also lead hikes through Naturalist-for-You.

There’s no excuse not to get out there!

A reminder: our site makes no warranties as to the safety of any parks or locations reviewed or discussed on our site. Please use common sense and only tackle hikes that are appropriate for the ages and abilities of your family.

I met Darlynn Morgan of Morgan Law Group a few years ago before our first travel-far-away-weekend without the the kids. I worried that my husband and I would be on the plane together . . . and what if we didn’t come back???  My logic was that nothing bad would happen if we were prepared. We spent a lot of money to have a legal aid firm complete our basic trust paperwork. BAD decision! The whole process was a nightmare and we still weren’t sure everything was in order.

Darlynn to the rescue! We met with Darlynn only briefly, but I immediately connected with her personal story of loss and felt the sincerity of her motivation to help others. She reassured us and gave us valuable advice to make sure our affairs were in order. I wish we had gone to her first. You can’t mess around with something this important. We will be using her services soon since our “estate” has changed since we last met.

So What Does This Have to Do with Parks?
Darlynn gives presentations at parks and playgrounds. She knows you have kids and wants to make her message convenient to your schedule. When she speaks to moms groups at parks it only takes about 20 minutes. She hits the highlights. It’s abbreviated from her longer presentations, which are available for parenting groups that meet at indoor venues. She loves when moms clubs invite her out to their play dates. The kids can run around and the moms gather around for her quick talk so she can point you to your next step.

What Makes Darlynn Different Than Other Estate Planning Attorneys?
She:

• Travels to parks to speak to busy parents and grandparents.
• Has a 1 year old – and knows about family challenges and concerns.
• Makes it easy to come up with a plan that works for your personal situation.
• Finds it rewarding to educate families on estate planning, whether they become a client or not.
• She’s super nice and approachable. She enjoys long-term client relationships which grow with the family.
• Sadly, she has personal experience - with loss and not being prepared – which motivates her to help others.

Her presentation tells how to ensure the safety and care of your children and how to avoid the common mistakes parents make when choosing a guardian for your minor children. Darlynn is dedicated to her life’s work of: helping families with young children protect what they love.

Please visit her explanation of “How We’re Different” (it’s the best description of what she can do for you). Then give her a call to schedule either a personal meeting or park presentation.

Like I said, she’s super nice.

*I received no compensation for this post.  And I’m not an official client . . . yet!  However, the nice person she is  — Darlynn offered to make a donation to support me for the Tiny Oranges Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation race team.

“When children and nature mix, something magical happens.”
-Marghanita Hughes, Author & Illustrator

I get goosebumps every time I hear Marghanita say those words. Her voice gets wispy when she says “magical” and you know Marghanita can see her Little Humbug characters flitting around the woods playing and doing their good deeds. Jasmine is leader of the Butterfly Girls. She lives in Humbug Village with her friends: Lucy the Bird Keeper, Chloe the Gardener, Flint the Dragonfly Boy, and Nika the Gemstone Collector.

These characters are stewards of the Earth providing a model my children try to emulate. We’re old friends of Jasmine. I bought a doll and the “We’re the Little Humbugs” book for my daughter last Christmas. Jasmine is her constant companion and I’ve been chastised more than once for not following the Butterfly Girl’s lead. I’ve been told the Butterfly Girls “don’t like it when you leave the light on when you’re not in the room.” My daughter also picks up trash at the park without the benefit of my suggestions. She learned it from the Butterfly Girls!

Nika and The Painted Turtle is the latest Little Humbugs magical adventure. Marghanita is offering it as an e-Book available for download ($2.99). She gives instructions how to print and bind the 31-page book with ribbon. We took 3 nights reading it to the kids at bedtime. There are even activity pages at the back for coloring. Sshhh! I will be printing these out to color myself!

I regularly read Marghanita’s blog so it’s particularly fun for me to see her weave stories from her life into the pages of the book. There are surprises and disappointments in this book. My kids really identify with these young characters and were genuinely excited, concerned, and celebratory in different parts of the story. Its pages provide environmental enlightenment and a call to action. Problems have solutions. These are some of the insider connections to Marghanita’s blog posts you wouldn’t make unless you were reading the book with me:

• Enchanted Waterfall and her family adventures Finding the Waterfall
• Lucy in the Butterfly Girl Fairy House
• Sunflower Wishes
• Baby Quail Needs a Helping Hand – In the book, Lucy helps a Nuthatch.
• You’ll even see a nod to one of my posts (what a thrill!) with Nika’s rock stacking

Visit Marghanita’s  Wildwood Media YouTube Channel filled with her “Let’s Go Outside” series of wonderful nature crafts and inspiration to get your kids outdoors.

Download Nika and The Painted Turtle for an inside adventure to the far reaches of outdoors (e-Book available for ($2.99).

*Artwork credit: Marghanita Hughes is creator, author and illustrator of The Little Humbugs.

**No compensation received for this post. Marghanita is a #playoutdoors friend whom I met on Twitter. I value her as a mentor for her passion and creativity.

Debi and I met through our blogs and have even shared a few memorable in-person play dates with our kids. Make sure you check her Go Explore Nature website for ideas and LA nature locations. I asked if she’d want to share any tips with my readers and she provided her end-of-summer musings:

Did you ever have to write a “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” essay when you were a kid? At the time, I never felt like I had anything interesting to say.

But now that I’ve marked my first real summer vacation as a parent (my oldest is now a first grader), I feel like I learned a few valuable lessons worth sharing.

So here goes.

Having fun should be a priority.
When I was a kid, I loved summer. To me, it meant sleeping in, riding my bike every day, playing in the backyard until the sun went down, eating fruit off the trees, swimming at grandma’s and going to the family cabin in Yosemite.

I want my kids to love summer, too.

And so I found myself making fun a priority every day. Sometimes that took the form of an adventure at the beach, a nature park or a favorite museum. Other times, we rode our bikes to a friend’s house, ate lunch in the backyard or played in the sprinklers.

It didn’t matter what we did. It only mattered that we do something fun every day.

Time outdoors is a great remedy for what ails you.
Ever notice that kids are more agreeable when they’re enjoying the outdoors? While there’s plenty of evidence to support the idea that time spent outdoors in nature is good for kids, seeing it first hand was pretty convincing.

Whether we were tired, bored, and whiny or just feeling lazy, a trip out the back door always seemed to work magic. And the more time we spent outside, the stronger the effect.

Nature play is often better with friends.
My family loves spending time in nature. But until this summer, we usually did so on our own.

Over the past few months, we built fairy houses, mixed up magic potions, hiked and explored lagoons, wetlands and more with others.

With friends around, imaginative play took flight. Friends helped us spot things we wouldn’t have seen on our own and taught us things we wouldn’t have learned otherwise.

Summer doesn’t last forever.
Even though every parent feels like summer lasts forever, it doesn’t. Do your best to make the most of it, because next year your kids will be entirely different people.

Before summer started, I made a list of things I hoped we’d do. (My 5-½ year old contributed his ideas, too!) Then I took it a step further and actually scheduled time to do the things on our list. We certainly didn’t get to everything, but we did pretty well.

I’m not waiting for next year to put my lessons from summer into practice. Fall is calling!

Debi Huang is a Los Angeles-based wife, mom and adventure guide for two young boys. Her blog at Go Explore Nature is all about getting kids and families outdoors and connected to nature.

Enjoy these 5 More Fun Things at the Park post written by One Fun Thing™ Author and Illustrator Alii Goedecke . . .

1. The “Write” Stuff:  Fold and staple paper to make a small book. Decorate the cover with the name of the park, your name and the date. On the other pages write: “My Favorite Tree”, “My Favorite Bug”, “My Favorite Flower”, “My Favorite Animal” and “My Favorite Toy”.  While at the park, explore and draw or write entries to complete the journal (rubs can be made of many items by placing the paper over the item and rubbing the paper with the side of a crayon). Make new books at every park you visit to create a whole collection.
2. Frisbee Golf:  Set up cones (or select locations) as “holes”.  Take turns throwing Frisbees and counting the number of throws to reach each “hole”. Lowest score wins.  Have a special prize for a “hole in one”!
3. Amazing Race Treasure Hunt:  Give each person a plastic gold coin, paper and pencil.  After each person secretly hides their gold coin, they must write a clue to find it.  Get creative…it can be a drawing, poem, secret code, or hint.  Mix up the clues and have each person draw one.  First person to find their hidden coin wins.
4. Egg Drop: Bring a variety of household materials (paper cups, paper towels, straws, cotton, tinfoil, Q-tips, etc.) and eggs.  Give each person or team one egg and allow them to pick 7 items from the materials pile.  After a 15-minute time limit to construct their egg contraption, take turns dropping the eggs off of a play structure or tall rock. See whose eggs survive the fall.  Don’t be a bad egg…be sure to clean up any trash or mess!
5. TV Guide: Bring a video camera on your park adventure. Take turns behind and in front of the camera.  Give a tour highlighting your favorite sights at the park…think Huell Howser or iCarly!  Enjoy as a great family keepsake or upload your video to You Tube to share with other families looking for great parks.

Want more? Click to see the other list of 5 Fun Things Alii wrote for us in March.

Alii Goedecke is author/illustrator of One Fun Thing, a children’s book which tells the story of a family discovering how just One Fun Thing can brighten any day.  Visit www.oneFUNthing.com for more One Fun Thing ideas—the list keeps growing!  One Fun Thing is available at Amazon.com.  For One Fun Thing party ideas, see Alii’s articles in Coast Kids Magazine and Examiner.com.

Note from Michele: This is NOT a sponsored post, but I recently got to know Alii and I’m a fan of her ideas and outlook on life. Look for more to come from Alii on birthdays and party ideas at the park. So much fun, so little time!