It's hard to say which is more impressive—the battle to bring one of the largest remaining saltwater marshes along the California coast back to its natural wetlands form as a food rich market for fish and wildlife that rivals a tropical rain forest—or just standing on the trail between two channels of water filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of birds nesting, standing, eating, swooping above and around the trail. Barbara and I waited weeks for the rain to come and then go away in order for us to hike the wetlands of Bolsa Chica that the National Audubon Society calls "a globally important bird area" In addition to land mammals, reptiles, rare and endangered, plants, it's said that about 200 species of birds live or pass through here. The air and sky were clear, the trail between the channels easy to follow, and the signs along the path laid out the history that almost destroyed and then brought back this magnificent place. Archaeological evidence dates back at least 9,000 years to ancient burial sites for Tonga and Acjachemen peoples. Jump to 1899 when wealthy L.A. and Pasadena businessmen acquired a portion of this land and created the exclusive Bolsa Chica Gun Club catering to duck-hunting politicians and celebs with rifles. Ducks and geese like fresh, not seawater, so the clubmen dammed off the area from the ocean to create freshwater area. The ducks and geese came in droves, the change fractured the health of the wetlands. In 1920, Standard Oil entered into a lease with the Gun Club to begin oil extraction in the wetlands for a lot of money, a bonus, revenues. From 1941–45 (WWII), fearing attack from Japan, the US Army made the Gun Club HQ for a shore artillery battery as part of the Coastal Defense System then returned the land to the Gun Club after the war. 1960s, a developer acquired the land for a a marina and massive housing tracts—leaving only 300 acres for the wildlife. The move jarred grassroots efforts that echoed into action from the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, formed to preserve the wetlands, to the courts to the state capital. In 1997, the state of California purchased back 880 acres. The restoration of the wetlands, 1300 acres of coastal habitat, was completed in 2006, including an inlet to the Pacific for the first time since the Gun Club dammed it in 1899. Hiking the reserve trail was a jaw-dropping experience for us. We could identified colorants, herons, seagulls, pelicans, and turkey vultures, some in large groups, hanging out, nesting, ducking and dunking, in addition to the birds we didn't know. Bolsa Chica is utterly amazing. Don't miss it.