Nature Parks
in Orange County

Over the past few decades, accessible open space in Orange County has gotten harder to find due to widespread development. This is most evident for the north and central OC basin communities, where most people live, but have the least open space. As a result, this site is aiming to subjectively identify all “nature parks” in the county. Nature parks are considered natural or semi-natural public open spaces where people can gather and are reasonably accessible.

Nature parks listed are mostly in the coastal and foothill communities, where uneven terrain prevents overdevelopment. While the Santa Ana Mountains is the county’s largest open space, it wasn’t added because the high altitudes and primitive roads can make accessibility challenging. Refer to the map for further review.