Calabasas Peak | |
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Highest point | |
Elevation | 2,155 [1] ft (657 m) |
Coordinates | 34°06′43″N118°39′09″W / 34.11194°N 118.65250°W Coordinates: 34°06′43″N118°39′09″W / 34.11194°N 118.65250°W |
Geography | |
Location | Calabasas, California |
Parent range | Santa Monica Mountains |
Calabasas Peak is a mountain located in the Santa Monica Mountains in the city of Calabasas, California. The summit is accessible via the Calabasas Peak Motorway, a wide trail maintained by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. The Calabasas Peak Motorway is accessible from Old Topanga Canyon Road and Stunt Road trailheads, as well as an informal path on a trailhead on Mulholland Highway. [2]
The peak is the highest point in a wide ascent that runs parallel to Mulholland Highway, which is a part of the larger Santa Monica Mountains. The mountain is vegetated by dwarf forest shrubbery and chaparral plants around the mountainside and ascending trail, but is composed of large rock formations and sand at the peak. [3] Certain wildlife and animals are a common sight around the mountain range, including deer, rattlesnakes, and coyotes.
The mountain and trail was partially burned during the 2016 Old Fires in Calabasas, and again during the 2018 Woolsey Fire. After these fires, the mountainside vegetation and wildlife quickly returned, due to the region's natural acclimation to wildfires. [4] [5]
Calabasas Peak's climate is colder than Calabasas because of its elevation, being about 5 degrees cooler in the winter, and about 5-10 degrees cooler in the summer. However, though Calabasas Peak is colder than Calabasas, both areas do not experience any kind of snow, except on very rare occasions.
Calabasas is a city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California. The Leonis Adobe, an adobe structure in Old Town Calabasas, dates from 1844 and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in greater Los Angeles. The city was incorporated in 1991, prior to which it was an unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 23,241, up from 23,058 at the 2010 census.
Malibu is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about 30 miles (48 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its 21-mile (34 km) strip of the Malibu coast, incorporated in 1991 into the City of Malibu. The exclusive Malibu Colony has been historically home to Hollywood celebrities. People in the entertainment industry and other affluent residents live throughout the city, yet many residents are middle class. Most Malibu residents live from a half-mile to within a few hundred yards of Pacific Coast Highway, which traverses the city, with some residents living up to one mile away from the beach up narrow canyons. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 10,654.
Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties is named Mulholland Highway. The road is featured in a significant number of films, songs, and novels. David Lynch, who wrote and directed a film named after Mulholland Drive, has said that one can feel "the history of Hollywood" on it. Academy Award–winning actor Jack Nicholson has resided at Mulholland Drive for many years and still lives there today.
The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in California. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area encompasses this mountain range.
Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles, California, situated about 20 miles (32 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles.
The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1980 and dedicated to the acquisition of land for preservation as open space, for wildlife and California native plants habitat Nature Preserves, and for public recreation activities.
Topanga is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, the community exists in Topanga Canyon and the surrounding hills. The narrow southern portion of Topanga at the coast is between the city of Malibu and the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. As of the 2020 census the population of the Topanga CDP was 8,560. The ZIP code is 90290 and the area code is primarily 310, with 818 only at the north end of the canyon. It is in the 3rd County Supervisorial district.
Rocky Peak, located in Rocky Peak Park, is the fourth-highest point in the Santa Susana Mountains, and overlooks the San Fernando Valley and Chatsworth, the Simi Hills, and the Simi Valley in Southern California. The peak, which is 2,715 feet (828 m) in elevation, sits on the Los Angeles County–Ventura County line.
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.
Cleveland National Forest encompasses 460,000 acres, mostly of chaparral, with a few riparian areas. A warm dry mediterranean climate prevails over the forest. It is the southernmost U.S. National Forest of California. It is administered by the U.S. Forest Service, a government agency within the United States Department of Agriculture. It is divided into the Descanso, Palomar and Trabuco Ranger Districts and is located in the counties of San Diego, Riverside, and Orange.
Mulholland Highway is a scenic road in Los Angeles County, California, that runs approximately 50 miles through the western Santa Monica Mountains from near US Route 101 in Calabasas to Highway 1 near Malibu at Leo Carrillo State Park and the Pacific Ocean coast – at the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.
Topanga State Park is a California state park located in the Santa Monica Mountains, within Los Angeles County, California. It is part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
The Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve is a large open space nature preserve owned and operated by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy spanning nearly 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in the Simi Hills of western Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County.
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a United States national recreation area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The SMMNRA is in the greater Los Angeles region, with two thirds of the parklands in northwest Los Angeles County, and the remaining third, including a Simi Hills extension, in southeastern Ventura County.
Point Mugu State Park is a state park located in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in Southern California. The rugged, nearly impassible shoreline of the western Santa Monica Mountains gives way to tidal lagoons and coastal sand dunes at Mugu Rock. The western edge of the park adjoins Mugu Lagoon which is a protected area within Naval Air Station Point Mugu.
The Backbone Trail is a long-distance trail extending 67.79 miles (109.10 km) across the length of the Santa Monica Mountains in the U.S. state of California. Its western terminus is Point Mugu State Park, and its eastern terminus is Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades. The trail is open to hikers throughout its length. Dogs, mountain bicyclists and horseback riders are only allowed on portions of the trail as posted.
Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park is a 1,500-acre (6.1 km2) park in the Santa Monica Mountains, with its trailhead at the southern terminus of Reseda Boulevard in Tarzana, Los Angeles, California. The park was named for former Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, who for more than 30 years led the effort to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains. Owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the park is within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
Rocky Oaks is a small nature reserve and wildlife refuge regional park on Mulholland Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains, within western Los Angeles County, southern California.
Saddle Peak is a mountain located in the Santa Monica Mountains between Malibu and Calabasas. The summit is accessible via the Backbone Trail. There is also a feeder trail to the top from near the top of Stunt Road maintained by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. And there is an informal trail up the bottom East nose of the massif right across the intersection from the Scheuren Viewpoint. This latter trail passes around a water tower and eventually joins the main trails near the top.
Dos Vientos Open Space is a 1,216 acres (492 ha) open space area in western Newbury Park, California. It contains more than 41 miles (66 km) of trails used for cycling, hiking and equestrians. Originally a part of the Rancho Guadalasca Spanish Land Grant of 1836, the area is now an important wildlife movement corridor into the Santa Monica Mountains through the Point Mugu State Park. It provides a habitat for a variety of wildlife, including bobcats, mule deer, coyotes, eagles, hawks, barn owls, mountain lions, and more. It provides regional and internal trail connections, many trails offering panoramic views of the Conejo Valley, Oxnard Plain, Topatopa Mountains, Channel Islands, and the Pacific Ocean. Some of the endangered plant species found here include Conejo buckwheat, Verity's liveforever, and Conejo dudleya. The landscape is undeveloped, and dominated by coastal sage scrub, grassy hillsides, oak woodlands, and chaparral habitats.