O Neill Park

After being closed 11 weeks because of concerns about mountain lions, O'Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon will reopen Friday with a ban on overnight stays by children and with large areas designated as off-limits to the public, it was announced Monday. Richard Dyer, supervising ranger at the park, said adults will be required to obtain free permits before entering. The permits contain a warning of "inherent dangers" such as mountain lions, poison oak, rattlesnakes and rough terrain.

County officials hope to reopen O'Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon in late February or early March under new rules designed to guard against mountain lion attacks. The Board of Supervisors will be asked to approve the new regulations Tuesday, and the park can be reopened four to six weeks after that, according to a memo from county Parks Director Harold J. Krizan. The park has been closed since Dec. 26 after mountain lion tracks were spotted.

There have been four and possibly five more sightings of mountain lions in recent days at O'Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon, an Orange County parks official said Tuesday. The park has been closed to visitors because of the big cats for more than two weeks. Tim Miller, manager of the county's regional parks facilities, said rangers saw a young cougar Monday morning about three-quarters of a mile from the main gate on Live Oak Canyon Road.

Plans still have not been worked out for reopening O'Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon, closed since Dec. 26 after numerous mountain lion tracks were found in sections heavily used by visitors and one animal was seen by a woman camper, park officials said Tuesday.

Following the second sighting of a mountain lion in less than a week, O'Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon was closed indefinitely. "We have not formulated any plans as yet, so we can't say when the park might be reopened," said Harold J. Krizan, county director of parks and recreation. "We certainly hope it will be soon, although fresh tracks were found there again this morning," he said Wednesday. The park was first shut down Dec. 26, after the first lion tracks were spotted.

O'Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon--where a mountain lion was seen Monday--will remain closed indefinitely, the head of the county parks department said Wednesday. The park was shut down last Friday after mountain lion tracks were spotted. "We have not formulated any plans as yet, so we can't say when the park might be reopened," said Harold J. Krizan, county director of parks and recreation.

A visitor from Indiana spotted a mountain lion in O'Neill Regional Park Monday, prompting county officials to extend the park closing they ordered last week. After meeting together, Harold J. Krizan, head of the county Parks and Recreation Department, and Tim Miller, manager of regional facilities for the department, decided that the park in Trabuco Canyon will remain closed to the public at least until Friday.

It ain't the High Sierra, but . . . Many a conversation about Orange County-area campgrounds has been prefaced by such a statement. There is no breath-taking scenery, no fresh-water streams or fishing at Trabuco Canyon's O'Neill Regional Park or Anaheim's Featherly Park; no snow-capped mountains or lush, green landscapes at San Juan Capistrano's Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park or Elsinore's Ortega Oaks Park.