Branching off the Juanita Cooke Greenbelt Trail (in the section between Euclid and Valencia Mesa) is a lesser-known pathway called Horse Alley. I recently stumbled upon this short trail when I was hiking with my family during the holiday break. Horse Alley is roughly 0.61 miles long, maintained by the Fullerton Parks and Recreation Department, and listed on the city’s website as a “Backbone” recreational trail.
It’s a dirt passageway that varies in size. Horse Alley is both wide and narrow at different spots along its  length,  and it stretches between and behind large backyards, therefore fitting the very definition of the word “alley.”

As for the horse part of its name, the path is an extension of the Juanita Cooke Trail, which was named after an influential leader of the Fullerton Recreation Riders, a local equestrian group that made this extensive trail system possible.

Parking on the side of the road along Valencia Mesa by a concrete bridge that crosses over the Juanita Cooke Trail, my family followed a dirt walkway that eventually sloped down a somewhat steep hill to the Juanita Cooke Trail.

The entry point was on the northeast corner of the bridge. A brown “Trail Head Notice” sign and a wooden post with a small trail courtesy sign at the top of the incline were indicators that this was part of the greenbelt.

At the bottom of the hill, a flat stretch of the Juanita Cooke Trail ran straight behind St. Jude medical buildings. We continued walking until we reached an open metal gate next to a wooden fence. I have followed this part of the Juanita Cooke Trail many times, but I always thought that this gate was an entrance into somebody’s yard. However, it turns out that this is a part of the trail system managed by Fullerton’s Parks and Recreation Department.

There is no marker at the entrance indicating that this is Horse Alley, but there really should be. After stepping through the entrance gate, the trail turns a corner and is surrounded on both sides by white stable fences. An older sign for Horse Alley can be found further on.
The trailhead opening is wide enough for both horses and bicyclists. This section of the path appears to end at a narrow street marked by a white “Private Drive” sign.

When we saw this sign, we turned right on the road, crossed the street, and continued along the next segment of Horse Alley, which was marked with a row of tree stumps behind drought-resistant plants. There was a corral to the left side of the trail with a green covering over the fence.

Continuing onward, the dirt path curved around the corral and sloped uphill. Following a chain-link fence (over which a thriving orchard with orange trees could be seen in a large backyard), the pathway turned a corner. In this corner was an old wooden sign indicating that this was indeed Horse Alley.

The words, “Horse Alley: C.O.F – Speed Does Not Equal Right of Way” had been carved into the wood along with silhouettes of a horse rider and a hiker.

Other than this wooden sign, there is no other marker indicating what trail you are on, which is why it would be more helpful if the city’s Parks and Recreation Department installed another sign marking this trail as “Horse Alley” closer to the entrance gate.

As Walter Clark wrote on the Horse Alley page of his Fullerton Walks website, this “is a quiet, very hidden trail and somewhat disconcerting in that you constantly feel like you shouldn’t be there. All about you are backyards; no streets, not even a driveway with cars.”

I mostly agree with this sentiment, especially in a very narrow section of the trail where 24-hour video surveillance signs, armed response signs, beware of dog signs, and private property signs have been posted along a curving wooden fence. Wood fences line either side of a narrow turn in the trail before opening out onto Green-acre Road.

My family followed it a short distance to the intersection of Green-acre and Richman Knoll, where we crossed the street, turned left toward a white fence, and continued on Horse Alley.

Within this last section, we finally encountered horses. After stepping over tree roots and passing more rustic wooden fences and chain-link fences, we encountered another backyard stable with pens housing two horses named Pepper and Hot Rod.

The horses’ nameplates could be seen beneath two window openings where the animals could stick their heads out of the stable. Further along, I could smell the odor of horse and goat manure before even encountering them.

One horse was very alert and appeared to be hungry for food, sticking its head over metal fencing as we and other hikers along the trail passed by. There were muddy spots in the path here where I spotted horse hoof prints, tire tracks, and paw prints from dogs.

Behind a wire fence with metal posts a distance away, my family saw a grouping of goats resting in their yard, watching us as we walked. Past this point, we followed Horse Alley uphill and emerged on Euclid.

Even though Horse Alley runs through the middle of suburban neighborhoods, it feels as though you’re hiking in a more rural part of Southern California since you encounter lush vegetation, relative silence underscored by the sounds of different types of birds chirping (as compared to the sounds you might hear while walking along major streets in Fullerton), and goats and horses resting in pens or sticking their heads over fences along stretches of the alleyway.  While Fullerton’s Horse Alley is hidden on Google Maps, it is well worth taking.