Magnificent coast live oak trees, the biggest in the park, line this trail along the west side of Bell Canyon. The Spanish called this tree la encina, a word whose deriviatives are echoed in the communities of Encino near Los Angeles and Encinitas ("little oaks") near San Diego.
Start at the old windmill, following the path signed "Nature Trail." Cross the gravelly bed of Bell Canyon and stay on the far side for the next 1.0 mile.
As if stricken with some kind of arboreal arthritis, the limbs and branches of the oaks are fantastically contorted. Actually there's an underlying order to the seemingly random pattern. By intricately branching, the tree can support more leaves with less wood. Many of the oaks show fire scars dating back to the Stewart fire of 1958, which originated in Riverside County. Pushed along by Santa Ana winds, the fire swept across all of what is now Caspers Park, charring a total of 66,000 acres.
In late fall the tall sycamores along the Oak Trail can be even more attractive than the oaks. Crunch through the crispy leaf litter beneath their spreading crowns and watch the golden sunbeams dance amid thousands of fluttering leaves overhead. In winter the trunks and branches are ghostly white. By early spring, new leaves are emerging, and sunlight passing though them bathes the ground shadows in a jungle-green luminance.
When you reach the road coming down from the West Ridge, turn right. After
100 feet, bear right again on a foot trail leading over to the Bell Canyon
Trail, a dirt road. You can follow this back about a mile to the starting point.