Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park — Attraction in Laguna Niguel

I haven't been to Aliso (for MTB) for about 10+ years. It got too crowded and wasn't quite worth the drive at the time. I made an effort to visit the park on Sept 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th - all but one were on weekdays and I was at the park by 7am each day. Here's some things I noticed:

Pros

The park has much more tree coverage and shade than it used to The park entrance off of Alicia is great - nice new buildings, lots of shade, etc The park is well maintained with newer foot bridges on the waterways No snakes, at least during the early morning

Cons

Mathis has been practically paved, 10-12' wide fireroad now with no technical sections anymore Although there's "No eBike" signs EVERYWHERE, there was a 10:1 ratio of eBike to pedal bike - I even saw one collision one of the mornings between a pack of 10+ eBikes and a gravel bike rider Lots of dogs up on West Ridge - which was the same 10 years ago Free parking is limited to the road which has at most 15 spots unless you pay the fee in the dirt lot. the one weekend day I parked in the church lot, as they had some massive HS cross country meet that morning - probably 50+ cars in the church lot The shade structures that were at the bottom of Cholla and top of...

Such a beautiful natural park steps away from civilization. There are several multi use trails with different difficulty level. The trails are clean and left to nature with minimal tender human care. There are multiple entrances to the park depending on where you enter and which trails you take you might get surprised by the wild life. If you are lucky you can run into grazing deer family. There are sight of mountain lions as rumored.

The trails are well marked with difficulty level and distance. The main trail in the canyon is shaded with trees. The blooming season can be experienced here in abundance. The cactis, wild flowers and occasional wild life makes this park an experience for whole family. The dogs are allowed on main trails but not on ones that connects upper and canyon trails due to wildlife danger. The park is favorites for mountain bikers and can get quite busy.

You can get glimpse of ocean views on upper trail that leads to world famous top of the world. There are also few caves that gives you glimpse of earlier life in orange county.

Dont forget hats, sunscreen and water and enjoy the...

The park was fine, but rating 1* so hopefully they see the problem: Instead of giving directions on their website, they link to Google Maps, which is WRONG! The gate at the Google destination let us in, and by the time we went far enough to realize it wasn't right, there was no place to turn around, so we had to go miles before we could turn around. Google being wrong isn't tehnically their fault, but They should have checked before posting the link to their website The website should state Google is currently wrong They should contact Google to tell them it's wrong (pretty easy to do) Their website should have the real directions, including "if you get to the park entrance at Knollwood Rd, next to the school, you are going the wrong way" (there is a huge sign at this corner saying you are entering the park, which simply confirms Google's incorrect directions) The gate that Google takes you to (which does enter the park and is on park property) should have a clear sign "NO PARK ACCESS...