West Irvine Trail/Peters Canyon Bikeway

To the rider, the West Irvine Trail and the Peters Canyon Bikeway are one continuous trail with two names in two cities. Both are dual track trails with a blacktop lane for bikes and a decomposed granite track for the joggers and equestrians.

Together, they join the Peters Canyon Wash Trail in Irvine to the Peters Canyon Regional Park in Tustin with Class I bikeways. They are part of the collage of trails (Back Bay Trail, San Diego Creek Trail, Harvard Trail, Peters Canyon Wash Trail, West Irvine Trail, and Peters Canyon Bikeway) which make up much of the Class I portion of the Mountains to the Sea Trail.

The West Irvine Trail starts on Bryan Ave. at the corner of the bridge over the 261 Toll Road. Across the bridge is the Peters Canyon Wash Trail. It runs across West Irvine and up Jamboree Rd. to Valencia Park, Irvine. There it dives under Jamboree and comes up in Tustin on the other side of the road.

Now it becomes the Peters Canyon Bikeway as it heads up the other side of Jamboree to Portola Parkway, thence over to Tustin Ranch Rd and then cross-lots past Cedar Grove Park and under the heights of Lemon Heights to the Retarding Basin at the bottom of the Peters Canyon Regional Park.
If you start at the Retarding Basin, gravity is your friend and it is alleged that you can almost coast all the way down to the Back Bay in Newport Beach. Its about ten air miles between the two points. You will do more on the trail, but its a nice downhill ride. Now, about getting back to your car&

From the I-5 Freeway, take Jamboree Rd. NE to Portola Parkway. Left onto Portola and take it to where it Ts into the Tustin Ranch Rd. Right on Tustin Ranch, then left onto Pioneer Way, which runs into Pioneer Rd. Right on Pioneer Rd., then left into the parking lot of Cedar Grove Park.
This can serve as your full service upper trail head. The trail runs next to it. The end is about a mile north. Need to get closer? Pioneer Rd. to Peters Canyon Rd. Left on to PCR and take it as far as you can  which is the Retarding Basin. There is on-street parking here.

To access the West Irvine trail end, come up or down the Peters Canyon Wash Trail to the Bryan Ave. underpass. Come up to street level and take the bridge over the 261. The trail end is at the far side of the bridge.

TRAILHEADS&

Cedar Grove Park, 11385 Pioneer Road, Tustin, CA - full service trailhead for the upper trail.

Homestead Park, 8 Cliffwood, Irvine, CA  full service trailhead for the lower trail.