A Welcome Back to Caspers Park

* On a spring afternoon in the early ‘80s, I had my first view of Caspers Wilderness Park, during their annual open house.

No sooner did I finish my bagged lunch at a sturdy picnic table than I strolled up to the visitors’ center building, where a small group, headed by a ranger, was about to go on a nature walk. I joined them.

We crossed the San Juan Creek, a crystal clear stream, begat eons ago in the Santa Ana Mountains. It rippled downward through Caspers Park and on to the ocean. Here in the park, the Indians summered at its banks, until in 1776 the mission was built and the Indian way of life changed. Then, until the 1940s, cowboys from the nearby ranches watered their horses at this stream.

For me, the walk with our ranger guide was electrifying, from the overhead canopy of leafy oak and sycamore trees, to the buzz of bees, to the smell of fragrant sumac. I felt the cool dirt path underfoot and I thrilled to the touch of the sturdy oak limbs that climbed high into the sky.

It wasn’t long before I signed up as a volunteer in the visitors’ center, agreeing to two Saturday afternoons a month. Here I cheerfully answered questions and passed out park information. Eight years later, my duties came to an abrupt halt when the park, after suffering from two lion attacks on children, closed to all but adult visitors. Overnighters were severely restricted.

Now the park opens again. May its wilderness ease the tensions of its visitors, and may its very nature thrill them as it did me.

GINNIE RYDER

Laguna Niguel