Hiking Laguna Canyon - Willow/Bommer/Big Bend
On a rare cloudy day in Southern California, we decided to stay close to home and take a short hike at a Laguna Coast Wilderness park. The Laguna Coast Wilderness has a lot of trails and most of them interconnect, so it is easy to "design your own adventure". We opted for a short 5 mile hike, with easy to moderate terrain, since we didn't know if the sky might decide to rain.
Here is a map of the route we took:
We started at the Willow Canyon Staging Area - $3 to park, and there are restrooms. We followed Willow Canyon up to the Willow Spur and turned left (1.5 miles). The spur is short (0.1 miles) and connects you with Bommer Ridge Trail. We turned left and followed Bommer Ridge to Big Bend Trail (0.7 miles). A left down Big Bend Trail, and I do mean DOWN. This is a somewhat steep and uneven at times, fire road. After 1.5 miles, we dead ended at Stagecoach South Trail. A left here will take you a short distance to a parking lot with a little port-a-potty. Another 1 mile or so will get you back to the parking lot where you started!
This was a total of just under 5 miles, and we did end up getting rained on a bit. It was quite fun to be a little chilly on this trail, as often, these trails are hot places to be. The paths are dirt and very well maintained, often quite wide in places. Keep an ear open for bikes, as they will often come up behind you quite quickly. Grab a pack, some water and snacks, and go find your own adventure!
