Bell View Trail

Bell View Trail is located in Southern California near the Robinson Ranch community. The trial itself is about 3 miles long with moderate difficulty. Some part of the trail can be quite steep and the trail is quite rocky and sandy. Thus the hikers need to wear proper hiking gears to complete this trail. This trail does not really have a trail head, nor it has a parking lot for people to park. The best place to start is at the South end of the trail and park the car on the side of Robinson Road.


We got to the trail around 7 in the morning and the winter California air is quite chill. We actually brought jackets with us. When we got onto the trail, we started the climb instantly. We noticed that some parts of the trail were quite steep and need to pay more attention when we come back down. We took few turns and turned right into the narrow trail, and this led the trail to go along the mountain ridge and to the mountain peak at the end.

When we were hiking along the trail, we could hear small animals rattling in the bushes on the side and bird chirping on the trees. It was really calm and quiet. After around 1 mile of hike, the trail starts to climb more steeply and the ground was sandy with gravels. We had to  place our feet carefully so that we do not slip on the trail.

We finally got to the top of the peak at around 8 in the morning. It was a gorgeous view at the top. We could see the entire mountain ranges at the back of the peak with morning sunlight shining on the mountains. The color was just beautiful. Looking back down to where the trail starts, we had a gorgeous view over the Orange County. It was just an amazing experience!

We took a 30 minutes rest at the top and surprised at how unpopular this trail is. We did not see anyone else along the trail for the entire hike. This is probably because there isn't a proper parking spot for hiking this trail.

Overall, the hiking experience on this trail was great! The only thing that bothered us is that the trail is very sandy with lot of gravels at steep sections. We had to walk really slowly to make sure we don't slip and fall, but this is also the fun part of mountain hiking!

Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon is located in Southern California, just south of Irvine. The trail to Red Rock Canyon is about 1.6 miles one way and the round trip hike can be completed within 2 hours. The first part of the trail shares the same starting point that connects to many other trails, thus there is usually a lot of people on the trail.


We got to the trail head at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park at around 7:30 AM and the parking lot at the park was already full! Thus we had to park the car at the plaza across the street. If you choose to park at the park's parking lot, there is a $3 fee. Also, make sure you don't park at the plaza beside the park, else your vehicle will be towed away.

The hiking trail is quite easy without much elevation gain. The only difficult park is that some parts of the trails are quite sandy and difficulty to walk on. In addition, keep in mind that this is also a mountain biking trails and many bikers are on this trail. So just walk on the side when there are bikes coming through.

We got to the intersection after about 40 minutes and there are more signs and maps to show which way to go. The Red Rock Canyon trail would be on the right side and leads into a small trail that no bikes are allowed. We proceeded onto the Red Rock Canyon trail for about 10 minutes and we really enjoyed the hike here. The trail goes through the meadow and it was extremely quiet!

We finally reached the Red Rock Canyon and that is where the trail ends! The rock was painted with beautiful red color. Unfortunately it was cloudy on this day and there wasn't much sun light, else it would be even more beautiful. It would be the best to be here during the sun set as the sun shines onto these rock from the west!

Overall, it was a fun trail to hike on and a great place to get away from the busy city life. It was so quiet on the trail and the only thing we could hear were bird chirps.