Best Hike in Cleveland National Forest

Just want to give a shout out to Frank at CA-hiking.com for his quick resonse to my question about a previous hike in the Trabuco Unit of Cleveland National Forest. Start at San Juan Trail across from the candy story on Ortega Highway (74), then across the creek and up up and away on Chiquito Trail to the falls. The area above the falls has easily the nicest riparian woodland I've seen anywhere in this NF. Frank has a trail description and a great video of the falls too:



Many people do this as a car shuttle and come out above the falls at the top instead of returning to the candy store parking lot.

To stay on-message: let's hope Cleveland National Forest doesn't get closed down like the state is trying to do to its parks. For those of you fiction-minded outdoorsy types out there, Kim Stanley Robinson predicted back in 1988 that exactly this will happen in his novel The Gold Coast, about an Orange County in 2067 where people are packed in like sardines - including in the by-then-fully-developed former National Forest.