Whiting Ranch Wilderness is located by Lake Forest in Southern California. It is a very popular park for mountain bikers and offers numerous trails for both hikers and bikers. This place is always packed with people during the weekend. There is a few parking spaces by the entrance to the park, but the parking space is very limited and costs $3. Most people park their cars in the plaza across the street and walk over.
We got to the park around 7:30AM in the morning and there were not many people. This time we were hiking to the Vista Lookout, which was the highest point of the park. The first section of the trail was quite sandy. The good thing was that it was just raining last night, so the sand was quite packed and easy to walk on. This first section of the trail was also shared with bike riders. However, if you are to bike on this section of the trial, keep in mind that this is a one way biking trail.
After about 40 minutes, we completed the first section of the trail and got to the fork. This was where everyone took a rest. At this point, there were many trails heading to different directions. The Vista Lookout was on the right side and thus we took the trail on the right. The trail on the right was quite wide and also allowed cars to drive on. The good thing was that this section of the trail was no longer sandy and easy to walk on. This section of the trail was also where the ascend starts so prepare yourself for this.
The trail took several turns and kept on ascending. Once you come across another fork and see another sign pointing to Vista Lookout, there would only be 0.3 miles left. From the Vista Lookout point, we had a 360 degree view of the entire Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. It was an amazing view. We could also see the Red Rock Canyon on the North side.
We did not stay long at the Vista Lookup however, since it was quite windy and looked like it was about to rain. Overall, it was a great spot to enjoy the view on a nice sunny weekend.
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