We stepped inside coyote territory to bring you an inside look at the safe hikes available in their habitat.
On a new episode of Tori’s Trails, for The Now Bakersfield Cooper hiked four miles at the Wind Wolves Preserve.
Inside the Wind Wolves Preserve there are 40 miles of trails for you to pick from and a total of 93,000 acres for all other species to roam around you.
“Coyotes would be pretty common, we’ll definitely see ground squirrels. A few of the cool raptors we might see are golden eagles, red tail hawks if we go near the wetlands,” Northern California Conservation Director Landon Peppel said.
Peppel spends his afternoons protecting the largest non-profit nature preserve on the west coast and educating people like you about everything the preserve has to offer, “We have a safari tour, we do it in the winter a lot like once a month or twice a month we’ll put people in a vehicle and drive around the property,” Peppel said.
Along with Safari tours visitors can also go on night hikes that are offered and they will have a chance to learn about the native ties to the preserve, “This is part of the Chumash range here at Wind Wolves Preserve, the Chumash lived from Wind Wolves all the way to Santa Barbara and on the preserve itself there are things like artifacts and paintings that show they were present,” Peppel said.
If you pay close attention to the rock formations you may come across some of those artifacts, “This is a bed rock mortor it’s a place where the indigenous people would grind food,” Peppel said.
Following the trails signs for the Emigdio Canyon trail Cooper and Peppel veered left to go towards Ravens Landing. The trail was clean and was not too packed with rock according to Cooper but it definitely sped up her heart rate, “We’re about a half mile in, I’m feeling a little winded but we’re about to go to Raves Landing and hopefully get an awesome view.
Cooper and Peppel found a few views and on the way back they crossed streams, stopped by a floating deck and then topped everything off with a visit to a waterfall at the bottom of the loop.
DIRECTIONS FROM BAKERSFIELD: Take Old River Road south until it ends at Highway 166. Go towards Miracopa for one mile and then the sign for Wind Wolves Preserve will be there. Follow the access road into the preserve and then you will hit the bottom of the trail. You can also type this in on Google if you are not coming from Bakersfield.
