El Modena Open Space

I took someone’s advice and parked on the residential street of Stillwater St off of Cannon St, and on a Saturday morning there was plenty of parking. As always, Zulu (the dog) came adventuring with me. In case you get confused easily like me, the trail starts right at that intersection, you’ll see a little dirt hill that resembles a path going up. This hike has NO trail markers or anything, so it can be very confusing. At times I wasn’t sure if I was trespassing on other property or if I was still inside what was considered to be El Modena open space. There are no benches to rest on, it pretty much is «open space» as in the name with no signs, markers, or rest stops. And I think I like it like that. It’s a nice change compared to the well manicured parks in OC.
As long as you stick to what you think is «probably a trail» you’ll be ok. There are some nice hills and switchbacks, good inclines and declines but nothing too extreme. I can imagine just running up the hill on Cannon St would be a nice workout too.
Zulu and I will definitely be back, there was another hill or two for us to explore, and its a great place for a workout (finally, trails that aren’t all flat!)
Also be on the lookout for glass, as there’s a lot of broken bottles around. We also found graffiti on rocks, empty boxes of beer, and other random bits of things. The place is a bit creepy to go alone, even on a Saturday morning we only ran into maybe 2 – 3 other people. Just be careful, and bring something for self defense just in case.