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Buck Gully is part of the Newport Beach trail system. Although it doesn’t really fit in with the other waterfront trails, the lovely trail is included in this chapter for lack of a more suitable home.

trip 2.1 Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve

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Distance 2.7 miles (loop)

Hiking Time 1½ hours

Elevation Gain 200’

Difficulty Easy

Trail Use Cyclists, dogs, good for kids

Best Times All year

Agency OC Parks: UNBNP

DIRECTIONS To reach Upper Newport Bay’s Muth Interpretive Center, exit the Costa Mesa Freeway (Highway 55) at Del Mar Avenue in Costa Mesa, and go east toward the bay. In 0.5 mile, Del Mar becomes University Drive. Continue 0.4 mile to reach the interpretive center parking lot just past Irvine Avenue.

Were it not for public protest in the 1960s and ’70s, Upper Newport Bay would surely have become yet another of Orange County’s residential harbor communities. Instead, the State of California purchased 752 acres of Irvine Company land in 1975, thus establishing the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve. An astounding 100 species of coastal and mudflat fish, as well as some 200 species of birds, frequent the shallow waters of the bay.