Southern Sierran Talbert Nature Preserve provides a haven for nature in Costa Mesa

We are told that even in the city, nature is all around us. Affirmative, but only if we take the time to look. When I relocated for a year to Orange County after 30 years in the Santa Monica mountains, the Santa Ana River trail and Talbert Nature Preserve in Costa Mesa saved my life. A woman walking her dog told me about the river trail, and it was all downhill-toward the ocean-from there.

In Orange County, the Santa Ana River trail (which begins at Prado Dam in Corona) is actually a paved bike path that lines both the northern and southern banks of the river. Chain link fences keep cyclists from falling onto the hard concrete banks, but here and there on the south side you can ride or walk along patches of coastal scrub.

I accessed the trail at Gisler Avenue, two long blocks south of the San Diego Freeway. I crossed a footbridge and with a great sigh of relief found myself face to face with stands of white sage and canyon sunflowers, dense and plump from reclaimed water. The river itself is dry and uninteresting in summer, but during last year's wet winter it roared deep and thick with sediment from the San Bernadino mountains. For days on end, I ran to the bridge to watch the russet flow run thick and angry toward the sea. Some nights after dark, I walked a mile or so beside the roaring flow to take in the scent of the water's fresh wetness.

The bikeway runs clear to the ocean just north of Newport Beach. But the real bonus for people traveling the south bank is that a couple of miles before the beach, another bridge crosses an auxiliary storm channel into the Talbert Nature Preserve.

The nearly 2,000-acre preserve is a joint project of the local parks department and the California Coastal Conservancy. The land lies tucked under the bluffs that drop off Placentia Boulevard just before it intersects Adams Boulevard in the Mesa Verde section of Costa Mesa. Here, the Santa Ana River's flood plain creates a wide swath of open space, and in winter I used to walk there just to feel the sky opening like an upside-down bowl of stars.

This is not wilderness by any sense of the word. Even if the land and its inhabitants were wild, they would be dwarfed by adjacent human development. But those among us who worry that their footfall will harm nature will feel comfort walking the preserve's wide gravel paths. The preserve is divided into six separate plant groups, based on what would exist there naturally. There is a native grassland zone, an alluvial woodland, coastal strand, and a large riparian section up against the bluffs.

The preserve is a well-kept secret among locals. Many are regulars who claim the trails for their daily walks, jogs, or bike rides. Bikers using the Santa Ana River trail sometimes make a detour into the preserve. Everyone is friendly and respectful of each others' presence.

Talbert Preserve is used most heavily on weekends. On Sunday mornings, families toss footballs and frisbees near the picnic tables, where a paved trail comes down from Fairview Park. The lower end of the preserve comes out onto a section of the bike path just north of Victoria Avenue. The bikeway crosses under the street there and immediately to your left is a small man-made pond, populated with mallards, egrets, and an occasional white pelican. If you keep walking west you'll hit the beach, although you have to duck under PCH to reach the waves.

This section of the bikeway was under construction when I used it in 2004 and early 2005, and cyclists headed for the ocean used the trail on the other side of the river, leaving the south side to joggers, fresh-faced parents with strollers, and people like me out with their dogs. Occasionally during the wet months I would run into someone fishing in the river. Down this far, the Santa Ana is unarmored and accessible. There's no fence and only rock along its banks.

You can also access Talbert Preserve from Fairview Park, operated by the City of Costa Mesa. Currently, most of this bluff-top park is underdeveloped and many visitors use it to walk their dogs. The mixed native and introduced vegetation crisscrosses the random trails, which means that even on busy weekends you can find a quiet spot to walk by yourself. The bluffs at Fairview Park are also a great place to watch the sunset, as long as you don't mind power lines jutting into the foreground of your view. From there you can also take in the lay of the land to see how the Santa Ana River opens up as it heads directly toward the ocean.

Wildlife in both the park and the preserve consists mostly of water fowl, including great blue herons, snowy egrets, and lots of mallards. Terrestrial animals are small mammals like rabbits, squirrels, and mice. At dusk I have heard the high-pitched yelp of coyotes.

Fairview Park extends down toward Talbert Preserve. The preserve land still has a raw quality to it, but plans are afoot to develop this open acreage into native habitat and formal trails. Last year, however, with the lower bikeway under construction and the park still untouched by urban planners, Fairview Park, Talbert Preserve, and the Santa Ana trail provided a great opportunity for me in my urban exile to feel a little more at home.