Southern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban agglomeration in the United States. The region generally contains ten of California's 58 counties: Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties. The Colorado Desert and the Colorado River are located on southern California's eastern border with Arizona, and San Bernardino County shares a border with Nevada to the northeast. Southern California's southern border with Baja California is part of the Mexico–United States border.
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. Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is located in this mountain range.
The Santa Susana Mountains are a transverse range of mountains in Southern California, north of the city of Los Angeles, in the United States. The range runs east-west, separating the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley on its south from the Santa Clara River Valley to the north and the Santa Clarita Valley to the northeast. The Oxnard Plain is to the west of the Santa Susana Mountains.
The Pomona Valley is located in the Greater Los Angeles Area between the San Gabriel Valley and San Bernardino Valley in Southern California. The valley is approximately 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, which can often be seen from nearby foothills. It ranges from the city of San Dimas from the far west to Rancho Cucamonga to the far east portion of the valley. The alluvial valley is formed by the Santa Ana River and its tributaries.
The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Kern counties. The Peninsular Ranges lie to the south. The name Transverse Ranges is due to their east–west orientation, making them transverse to the general northwest–southeast orientation of most of California's coastal mountains.
The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately 61 miles (98 km) southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riverside counties.
The Chino Hills are a mountain range on the border of Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties, California, with a small portion in Riverside County. The Chino Hills State Park preserves open space and habitat in them.
Palomar Mountain is a mountain ridge in the Peninsular Ranges in northern San Diego County. It is famous as the location of the Palomar Observatory and Hale Telescope, and known for the Palomar Mountain State Park.
The Verdugo Mountains, also known as the Verdugo Hills or simply The Verdugos, are a small, rugged mountain range of the Transverse Ranges system in Los Angeles County, California. Located just south of the western San Gabriel Mountains, the Verdugo Mountains region incorporates the cities of Glendale, Pasadena, and La Cañada Flintridge; the unincorporated communities of Altadena and La Crescenta-Montrose; as well as the City of Los Angeles neighborhood of Sunland-Tujunga.
Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topographically higher mountains, hills, and uplands. Frequently foothills consist of alluvial fans, coalesced alluvial fans and dissected plateaus.
The Coast Ranges of California span 400 miles (644 km) from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains.
The Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve is a constituent of the University of California Natural Reserve System. It is located off State Route 1 in the Big Sur area on California's central coast, fifty miles south of Monterey and adjacent to the Big Creek State Marine Reserve and Big Creek State Marine Conservation Area.
The Kreyenhagen Hills are a range of foothills of the Diablo Range in western Fresno County and Kings County, California. The Kreyenhagen Hills form a long foothill belt in the soft formations between Reef Ridge and Kettleman Plain. They are divided into several groups, each a few miles wide, by streams crossing them at right angles. They meet with the steep face of Reef Ridge, and are distinct from the mountains which begin there. To the northeast the strata form ridge after ridge, parallel to each other, and extend the length of the separate divisions between the main stream valleys. These ridges, appear like a series of waves advancing, toward Reef Ridge, and elsewhere to broken waves, as in a choppy sea. The ridges are slightly asymmetric, the northeast flank being a dip slope and fairly smooth, while the southwest flank is a steeper, strike face that is in many places eroded so as to leave sharp gullies and conical intermediate ridges extending outward. The groups of hillocks so produced bear some resemblance to an encampment of tents or huts, and the name Jacalitos,, may have been applied to Jacalitos Creek owing to this feature of the hills through which it flows. The greatest symmetry of the parallel ridges appear's in the portion of the Kreyenhagen Hills between Jacalitos Creek and Big Tar Canyon, and there the long, straight, smooth troughs between the ridges doubtless gave rise to the name Canoas, meaning trough, applied to Canoas Creek which passes across the central portion of the hills. Kreyenhagen was the name of the family who originally owned the land in the area.
The Palos Verdes Hills are a low mountain range on the southwestern coast of Los Angeles County, California. They sit atop the Palos Verdes Peninsula, a sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Poso de Chane or Poso Chane is a former settlement in Fresno County, California situated around the waterhole of that name, northwest just below the confluence of the Jacalitos Creek with Los Gatos Creek, 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Coalinga and northwest of the Guijarral Hills.
Zapato Chino Creek formerly known both as Arroyo de Las Polvarduras and Arroyo de Zapata Chino, is a creek in Fresno County, California. Its source is in Zapato Chino Canyon on the east slope of Mustang Peak in the Diablo Range. From there it runs northwest through Zapato Chino Canyon, in the Krayenhagen Hills, then passed across Pleasant Valley to the Guijarral Hills, then east through the Polvadero Gap, then runs northeast to its confluence with Los Gatos Creek. It usually dissipates in the San Joaquin Valley, 11 miles east of Coalinga. However it reaches Los Gatos Creek in years of heavy rainfall.
Jacalitos Creek formerly known as Arroyo de Jacelitos, is a creek in Fresno County, California.
