William R. Mason Regional Park, or as it is more commonly referred to, Mason Park, is a park in southern

Irvine, California Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 197 ...

. It is one of the largest parks in Irvine and is traversed by trails.

Background

The first phase of the Mason Park, forty-five acres, opened to public use in 1973. A second phase was completed in 1978 that included a lake which has proven to be a popular attraction.OCParks.com: Mason Regional Park
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Culver Drive Culver Drive is a major arterial road in Irvine, Orange County, California, running approximately from southwest to northeast. Its southwest end is at its junction with Anteater Drive and Shady Canyon Drive, at the meeting point of the Turtle Ro ...

and is thus split into two parts. The east side of the park is a wilderness area. It features scrub-covered ground, traversed by a bike trail and a small creek. As it is located on the northern edge of the

San Joaquin Hills The San Joaquin Hills are a low mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges System, located in coastal Orange County, California. They extend in a northwest–southeast direction, starting in the northwest in Newport Beach at the southern edge of t ...

, the terrain is rugged: the south edge is a large palisade, marking the edge of the park. The west side of Mason Park is more like a typical park than the east side. Though a ring of wilderness surrounds this side, it is mostly flat grassland, with an occasional hill or rise. An artificial lake about wide and long in the center of the park is often home to migrating birds and other local wildlife. The park is named for former

Irvine Company The Irvine Company LLC is an American private company focused on real estate development. It is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with a large portion of its operations centered in and around Irvine, California, a planned city of more ...

President William R. Mason, who headed the company from 1966 until his death at 54 in 1973. Its numerous trails eventually lead to Ridgeline, a street that connects Turtle Rock Loop to University Drive.

References

Mason Mason Mason {{OrangeCountyCA-geo-stub

Background

See also

References