This is one of two commonly used docent tours for the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve . The Reserve is only open to the public during prearranged tours with a docent . See Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve for more information. This route allows a view of virtually the entire accessible Reserve, travelling from the southwest corner of the Reserve through its center to the jewel of the Temecula Gorge in the north part of the Reserve.
Docents meet tour participants in a working avocado and citrus research grove.
Leaving behind the tropical orchards, the route descends into the shade of a live oak gallery forest along Stone Creek. The tour then rises into chaparral and coastal sage scrub and journeys along the San Diego Aqueduct northward before dropping suddenly and dramatically into Temecula Gorge and the cool riparian forests of the Santa Margarita River. At the Gorge, the erosional forces of river water have dug deep into the granite of the rising Santa Ana Mountains. October to June are the best months, but the hike can also be done in the early morning or late afternoon in July through September. See directions at Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve .