CA Open Space is a personal photo journal of California's outdoor spaces written by OC outdoor enthusiast, Cindy Crawford (no, not the same Cindy). Cindy and I have been e-mailing back and forth over the past few weeks. She's shared some great stories of her outdoor adventures and given me glimpses of OC places as they used to be. Her sincere love of the land comes through in every word of every e-mail. Here's a short intro to the woman and her website in her own words:
I’m Cindy Crawford, creator of CA Open Space website. I’m a native of Southern California, my parents moved here from other states. I’m from a family of outdoorsmen. I grew up hiking, camping and fishing the wilderness areas of California.
After a few years of “wilderness absence” while raising my kids, I went back to all our favorite family places and I was amazed at the change. I remember a time when:
- water flowed through Trabuco Creek,
- Irvine Regional Park was more of a wilderness park (not a developed park),
- cities like Rancho Santa Margarita were not there,
- and places where stands of old oak trees once stood which are gone as the toll roads replaced them.
I remember the first time, in more recent years, I came to the top of the “hair pin turns” at the end of Live Oak Canyon Road just past Trabuco Creek near Rancho Santa Margarita. Remember the old commercial with the sad American Indian looking over the hillside and seeing trash and development? At that moment, I could really relate to that commercial.
Shocked at the change I began to “photo document” my hikes. I felt maybe other people would also enjoy these places if it were easier to find more information about our wonderful California outdoors. So I created www.caopenspace.org. I hope we can preserve our beautiful places and leave something behind for generations to come so they too can enjoy the experiences that I did when I was growing up.
I’m happy to see so many people reconnecting with nature in recent years! I cover all types of “open spaces” on my website, from mountains, foothills, streams, wildflower fields, lakes, coastal wetlands to the beaches. If you really stop and think about it, they are all connected. I hope people find my website to be of help! Enjoy!!!
*Photo of Santiago Oaks and San Onofre State Beach by Cindy.
