Eastern Ladera Hills

I had a chance to explore the hills that trim Ladera Ranch on the east. I was always wondering how you even get there but figured it thanks to Google Earth: you just go all the way to the very end of Crown Valley and turn right there to a small road that goes behind all the stores to the Ladera water tanks, and the trail starts right there.



The totally is totally picturesque, but pretty steep all the way without any flat sections. For some reason I thought our eastern hills are the rim of the world and there is nothing on the other side except wild hills with coyotes and mountain lions. But when I got there I spotted another town in a mile to the east from Ladera – Coto De Caza, I suppose. So those lands are not wild after all.





The fire road that goes up and down these hills has a lot of dry bushes and cactuses on both sides. And noises you hear in the shrubs here and there do not give you exactly a sense of piece, safety and tranquility. I guess I need to get used to those trails some more so that I would not picture a mountain lion under every bush :-)

Anyways the only animals I saw there were a couple of deer on the hill.



This is the endless fire road going into the hills:



The trail is parallel to Antonio and takes you pretty far from Ladera Ranch:



More often than not signs "Stay on the trail!" are not required. You can see that you are not welcome on the slopes yourself:



Ladera Ranch from the top of one of the hills: