Some of the parents of my son’s class at school organized a day trip for us to visit Ronald W. Casper’s Wilderness Park here in SoCal. One of the moms is a keen forager of wild edible plants, so she led the day of adventure for the kids. My son and all the other kids had so much fun exploring this beautiful wilderness preserve – that I had never even heard of before – so I wanted to share the experience here on Eco Friendly Mama.

Ronald W. Casper’s Wilderness Park

This sprawling regional park in Orange County, California, covers 8,000 acres of wilderness in San Juan Capistrano. This protected nature preserve is home to a plethora of wildlife (flora and fauna).

There are running streams, including this one which was flooding the main road on the day of our visit!

My son got a thrill from our driving through it to get out and having water splash up the side of the car. Had the waters been any higher I suspect the road would’ve been closed off to traffic, so we got lucky that the stream wasn’t more swollen that day.

Casper’s park is located in San Juan Capistrano not too far from civilization. It’s about 15 minutes from the freeway. But as you drive farther into the park land, the buildings slowly give way to gorgeous wilderness until you really feel like you’re miles and miles from suburban Orange County.

 

Casper’s Wilderness Park makes for a great day trip when you’re looking to get out of dodge but don’t have the time to really get out of dodge!

 

A Bit Of History About Casper’s Wilderness Park

Much of the land that comprises this regional OC park was most recently owned and donated to the state by a wealthy cattle ranching company. However, thousands of years ago, it was home to a hunting and gathering tribe of American Indians called the Juanenos.

A lot happened in between when the Native Americans lived on this land and when it was finally donated to be protected as a wilderness preserve. You can read up about its fascinating history on the OC Parks website here.

Real estate values are crazy high here in Southern California, Orange County especially, so it feels like a real feat of strength that OC Parks has managed to keep this expanse of land as well many many other regional and local parks, protected from commercial development. Both my kids and I felt completely refreshed after spending the morning here. Having low cost access to nature and open space is vital to mental and physical health.

What To Do At Casper’s Wilderness Park

As we found out on our visit, many people enjoy camping on the vast grounds. There are multiple camp grounds throughout the preserve, including some that are specifically made for horses and their owners!

We parked at one of these horse camps, which had corrals and extra room for horse trailers to park. It’s pretty cool that you can bring your horse to the wilderness here and go for nature hikes with them during the day and even camp out at night with them too.

 

Kids Playground

Just a few minutes from the main entrance to the park is this wonderful playground for kids. All the play structures are relatively new and very well maintained. There was also a decent port-a-potty and water fountain in the parking lot.

The playground has a vague dinosaur theme. There was this cool little “Fossil Dig” area where kids could unearth buried dinosaur bones.

Another neat feature is this giant boulder just small enough for kids to climb up.

My son had a blast playing here with his friends on the tire swing, play structure, and more. This was my toddler’s first time going on a see-saw and she loved it! I liked how the see-saw and the other play equipment were all made mostly from wood, metal, and recycled tires instead of plastic (except for the boulder. I can’t recall if that was concrete or plastic, but I’d wager that it couldn’t be made from wood given the shape).

The playground also has this beautiful view!

What To See On The Trails

There are so many trails at Casper’s Wilderness Park I’m sure we barely even scratched the surface of what this nature preserve has to offer. After we met up at the playground and let the kids run off some steam, we drove up the road about five minutes to the horse camp area. There, behind the very last horse camp site, was a short but slightly steep trail that led up to a big clearing with a shower building and a road that led back down to the horse camp area.

Here, we learned, there are many edible plants along the path.

We saw wild grapes and sage and some kind of green plant that surprisingly tasted like lemon. We saw several varieties of edible wild flowers along this short path as well. It took maybe about ten minutes to get to the top, and that was with little kids. Just enough time for them to enjoy the climb, but not so long that they got exhausted and wanted to be carried the rest of the way.

At the top of the hill, we refilled our water bottles at a water fountain and nibbled on some of our foraged plants.

NOTE: Please don’t eat wild plants unless you are sure they are edible!

When we came back down to the base of the hill, our parent guide spotted some prickly pear cacti.

I had never seen a prickly pear cactus up close before, but have had a prickly pear cocktail before so I knew it’s bright pink in color. And wow that fuschia color does not disappoint in real life!

Our foraging mom carefully removed a prickly pear from the cactus. They have sharp points on them just like the cactus green so you really have to handle with care. She recommended gloves or a thick cloth to protect your fingers.

To get to the sweet fruit inside, you carve a prickly pear like a pineapple.

Cut off the top and bottom. Then carve off the tough exterior until the soft inner fruit is exposed.

Then you can slice it up and eat it like you would any other fruit!

Even the seeds are edible. They are not as hard as pomegranate seeds, but you might want to spit them out anyway. My toddler who has a pickier palate than her brother did so, while he ate it all.

Prickly pears can also be used as a natural dye. Pink of course. And I’m sure there are many other uses for it that I’m not yet aware of. Please comment below if you know of any others!

 

More Details

All in all we spent a few fun hours of hiking and foraging at Casper’s Wilderness Park. Both my 2yo and my 6yo had a fun morning exploring this small corner of the nature preserve. We plan to come back to check out more of the trails!

Admission to the park is technically free though you do have to pay for vehicle entry. It was $3 when we went mid-week and I believe it’s $5 on weekends and more during special events. They offer free tours and nature classes there year-round, just like the ones I wrote about in this post on the kids activities at Irvine Ranch Conservancy. So I highly recommend checking the OC Parks website for all the details.

Casper’s Wilderness Park is perfect for a short day trip if you’re visiting (or live in) Orange County and would like to experience nature with your kids. You can also camp there overnight (with or without horses), which makes it a versatile park to have in this area.

It’s wild to me that this beautiful and mostly untamed expanse of natural land exists so close to civilization. I really thought you’d have to drive for hours out into far flung corners of California to experience nature like this!

Our little adventure here made for a nice adventure close to home. For more reasons why staycations are awesome and eco-friendly, check out this post from Writing From Nowhere.

Have you been to Casper’s Wilderness Park before? Please let me know your thoughts about this park in the comments!

 

• camping
• foraging
• nature preserve
• OC Parks