Them thar Hills - Fullerton - California — Abandoned Places, Gold Rush & Route 66 Travel Photography

One of the last large, open-space areas in north Orange County is less than five minutes from where I live. Hundreds of acres, touching four different cities, trails criss-cross the expansive foothills. It’s very much appreciated by hikers, joggers and mountain bikers. And even though I’ve lived nearby for nearly twenty-five years, I’ve never really explored the area much at all.

When I saw a photo recently posted by a friend, of an old bottle dump up in the hills, that sparked my interest. A few days later, Peter was kind enough to guide me on a trek to see the place for myself. It’s pretty amazing to find a single bottle anywhere in the wilds that isn’t broken, but there were close to a dozen in this little cache, probably dating back to the 1950s or 1960s, as a guess.

It was a wonderful late afternoon for a hike, here are some of the highlights, in no particular order.

So, ok. Maybe when this chair was first brought up here, under this nice, shady Pepper tree, I might have sat down on it and taken a rest. But now? Naaaa, it’s pretty nasty and who knows what’s living underneath or inside it.

Most of the area was surprisingly litter-free, which was a very nice thing to see. And it appears that the oil company cleared out most of their equipment when they closed operations here. Which is kind of sad, I like to see old rusty machinery to photograph. But there’s a bit of stuff if you look hard enough.

The late afternoon light, combined with the puffy white clouds up in the blue sky, couldn’t have asked for a better time to hike and take pictures.

This middle photo shows part of one of the trails the mountain bikers enjoy. They’ll come down the hill, catch that board that ends at the “Y” in the tree, drop down about eight feet or so onto the bottom board. And the photo on the right is a quick look at the bottle dump that motivated me to visit the area.

“Duraglass” lays claim to being one of the most commonly-seen trademarks of its time. The brand name is found embossed on glass bottles, jars and jugs made by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and up into the 1960s.

So where did this little batch of bottles come from? Who used them and left them? My guess is there was a small guard building nearby where oilfield caretakers may have lived. I could be totally wrong. But I’m glad whoever was responsible for leaving them here, left most of them intact.

Peter standing near the edge of a cliff.

Los Angeles in the distance.

Mt. Baldy in the distance.

On the left, Atrociraptor on the hunt. On the right, what really happened.

The sun was fast setting, time to return to the parking area. It’s so awesome that a wild open space like this exits, surrounded by cities. The owners are tied up in litigation, they want to “develop” while nearby home owners and local wilderness lovers want to keep it as is. The way the courts seem to work(?), I think it will remain wild for some time to come.