First Hike at Harford Springs Reserve in Riverside

We tried a new (to us) hiking spot yesterday near Lake Mathews in Riverside… Harford Springs Reserve. Here are a few pictures:

We parked at a very small dirt parking lot at 21470 Gavilan Rd. in Perris CA, which is the address listed on the County’s website. Please note that there were no maps, so make sure you come prepared with a GPS device or a paper map. None of us had any cell service during our hike to see where we were, so we just winged it.

There are some trail markers, but the brush is too tall to get a good view of the trails up ahead.

If my google skills didn’t fail me, I think this orange stuff is called xanthoria parietina or common orange lichen. According to Wikipedia, a lichen “is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.”

If you know for sure what this is, please let me know in the comments.

Because we didn’t have a map, we went old school and climbed to the highest spot so we could see the trails.

We went off trail for much of our hike and ended up finding this tiny cave.

It was a nice day for a hike.

From the County’s website:

Harford Springs Reserve

Features:
Located at 21470 Gavilan Rd, Perris CA
Park hours 8AM- Sunset
2000 foot elevation
325 acres
Unique trails for all levels of hikers
Equestrian trails
Beautiful foliage and wildflowers