Happy Trail to Use : Recreation: New two-mile interpretive path from Laguna Niguel to ocean showcases best of nature.

Winding from the suburbs to the sea, a two-mile nature trail that environmentalists consider a treasure nestled in one of Orange County’s most heavily developed cities opens Saturday.

Located below hills full of stucco homes and within hearing distance of a stream, the newly paved trail weaves along Salt Creek Canyon, a natural habitat for some of Orange County’s most precious native species, such as the gnatcatcher and the red-tailed hawk.

Scheduled to open on Earth Day, the Laguna Niguel Hike-Bike Nature Trail will be the city’s longest off-road path linking the suburbs to the beach.

“This section completes a significant part of the county trail system,” said Laguna Niguel park and recreational manager Kerry Bartelt. “It’s very accessible to walkers, joggers and even to people riding in wheelchairs.”

The wide path starts at Laguna Niguel’s Chapparosa Park, snakes to Camino del Avion--with some challenging slopes--and enters the Dana Point bike trail, which continues to the ocean.

What sets this trail apart from others is its interpretive nature.

Twenty-one posts dot the trail, marking numerous flora and fauna found in the rich canyon. Pamphlets from the Orange County Natural History Museum, a nonprofit organization in Laguna Niguel, explain the plants and species often spotted near the markers.

The museum will provide new pamphlets for each season to adapt to the habitat’s natural changes.

“Unlike any other, it’s a trail that changes with the dynamics of nature,” said Jim Ortiz, a biologist and the museum’s treasurer, who spearheaded the project with the city.

Venturing deep into the canyon, Ortiz highlighted various herbs and plants, some edible, others poisonous. He pointed to sweet lemonade berry and warned of the deadly nightshade, a toxic weeping shrub with brilliant violet buds.

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Following the pamphlet, he trekked toward the elderberry bushes where thousands of red-winged blackbirds flock in the summertime to feed on insects.

When biking, in-line skating or strolling along the path, look for salmon-hued buds called monkey flowers because of their resemblance to the animal, Ortiz advised.

Be careful, he said, when touching prickly wild artichokes--sharp enough to blow out a bicycle tire. And test the air for the cleansing scent of square-stemmed sagebrush, he advised.

Before Laguna Niguel became a city in 1989, developers ravaged wetlands and graded the land to erect shopping malls and tract homes.

At one point, Salt Creek Canyon, once a grazing area where cowboys and cattle roamed, was threatened by construction of baseball fields and a golf course.

Although Ortiz, a 25-year resident of Laguna Niguel, helped to successfully fight those projects, the city’s open space continues to vanish, he said.

“It used to hurt me a lot to see rampant development,” Ortiz said. “One year I would see cowboys riding the canyon on horseback. The next year, there would be just a pile of dirt.”

The city later designated Salt Creek Canyon as open space to protect the wildlife.

“The value of this land is unbelievable,” Ortiz said. “If we want to save the animals, it’s the habitat that needs to be preserved.”

Ortiz said his next goal is to build a nature center at the trail’s entrance where information on and samples of native specimens would be showcased. Some school districts have shown support, but city officials said the project is contingent upon available funding.