Читать книгу Afoot & Afield: Orange County. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

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Upper Newport Bay

At an easily missed fork just beyond, descend back to the wetlands, which teem with bird life. Follow the trail southward along the shoreline, crossing an inlet on a bridge, until you are forced away near a bluff-top subdivision. At the far south end of the trail, you can reach an alternative trailhead on Santiago Drive.

Loop back north along the paved Bayview Trail that parallels Irvine Avenue. This route is popular with cyclists and joggers, but hikers may prefer to veer onto the broad dirt bluff-top path between Bayview and the wetlands. Whatever route you take, you’ll eventually find yourself back at the parking area.

The north shore features a bayshore bikeway connecting Bayview Way with the west segment of University Drive. At one point, you pass over a massively timbered wood bridge spanning the marsh where it pinches against a steep, dry bluff. From that bridge, you can view three separate tiers of vegetation. The lowest is the usual low-growing, salt-tolerant group of plants like pickleweed and cordgrass. Just above the reach of the tide are plants typical of the coastal uplands, such as wild buckwheat, mulefat, and cattails. Above the level of the bridge, the bluff slope supports a dense growth of native coastal sage scrub vegetation: California sagebrush, lemonade berry, elderberry, prickly pear cactus, and cholla cactus (a coastal variant of the same cactus that grows abundantly throughout the California and Southwest deserts).