The Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area is a county park located in Irwindale, California, US, in the San Gabriel Valley, inside the Santa Fe Dam. The park and dam are nestled among gravel quarries in the area, many of which are currently inactive. The dam is a flood-control dam on the San Gabriel River. The dam functions as a dry dam most of the time. [1] The San Gabriels produce more gravel than most other mountains. [2] The park is maintained and operated by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. [3] The park, located off the San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605), contains a 70-acre (280,000 m2) lake for year-round fishing and non motorized watercraft.
The dam is a popular tourist attraction, most likely due to the views of the San Gabriel Mountains. Recreational activities at the park include seasonal swimming, fishing, non-motorized boating, cycling, [4] [5] birdwatching, and hiking. In 2005, the annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California was relocated to the park from its long-established location at the Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore, California. The San Gabriel River Bike Trail runs through the recreation area. The bike path traces the rim of the dam around to the east of the flood basin and park, with access at Azusa Canyon Drive (main entrance to park)
Fish found in the lake include largemouth bass, bluegills, crappie, and carp. Rainbow trout are stocked in the cooler months, and channel catfish are stocked in the summer months. Some of the rare plants and wildlife found in the river fan include the alluvial fan sage scrub, cactus wrens, California gnatcatchers, scissor-tail flycatchers, horned lizards, and kangaroo rats. [ citation needed ]
The focus of the Santa Fe Dam Nature Center is the plant life and wildlife of the alluvial fan of the San Gabriel River. The nature center is open Saturdays from 10 AM to 1 PM, and is operated by the San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy. Programs include nature and bird walks, nature hobby presentations, insect identification, Tongva cultural history and other special programs.
Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, which is shared with Azusa, and 91706, which is shared with Baldwin Park.
The Santa Monica Mountains are a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area encompasses this mountain range. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in California.
Auburn State Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, along 40 miles (64 km) of the North and Middle Forks of the American River. The state recreation area (SRA) is situated on the border of Placer and El Dorado Counties in the heart of historic Gold Country. The largest city with close proximity is the city of Auburn. Once teeming with gold mining activity, the area now offers a wide variety of outdoor recreational opportunities. Major recreational uses include trail running, hiking, swimming, boating, fishing, camping, mountain biking, gold panning, horseback riding, road bicycling, and off-highway motorcycle riding. Whitewater recreation is also very popular on both forks of the river, with Class II, III and IV runs. Auburn SRA is also known as the location of a number of endurance races that are hosted throughout the year.
The American Discovery Trail is a system of recreational trails and roads that collectively form a coast-to-coast hiking and biking trail across the mid-tier of the United States. Horses can also be ridden on most of this trail. The coastal trailheads are the Delmarva Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean and the northern California coast on the Pacific Ocean. The trail has northern and southern alternates for part of its distance, passing through Chicago and St. Louis respectively. The total length of the trail, including both the north and south routes, is 6,800 miles (10,900 km). The northern route covers 4,834 miles (7,780 km) with the southern route covering 5,057 miles (8,138 km). It is the only non-motorized coast-to-coast trail.
The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside counties, before cutting through the northern Santa Ana Mountains via Santa Ana Canyon and flowing southwest through urban Orange County to drain into the Pacific Ocean. The Santa Ana River is 96 miles (154 km) long, and its drainage basin is 2,650 square miles (6,900 km2) in size.
The Rio Hondo is a tributary of the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles County, California, approximately 16.4 miles (26.4 km) long. As a named river, it begins in Irwindale and flows southwest to its confluence in South Gate, passing through several cities. Above Irwindale its main stem is known as Santa Anita Creek, which extends another 10 miles (16 km) northwards into the San Gabriel Mountains where the source, or headwaters, of the river are found.
The Angeles National Forest (ANF) of the United States Forest Service is located in the San Gabriel Mountains and Sierra Pelona Mountains, primarily within Los Angeles County in southern California. The ANF manages a majority of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.
The San Gabriel River is a mostly-urban waterway flowing 58 miles (93 km) southward through Los Angeles and Orange Counties, California, in the United States. It is the central of three major rivers draining the Greater Los Angeles Area, the others being the Los Angeles River and Santa Ana River. The river's watershed stretches from the rugged San Gabriel Mountains to the heavily-developed San Gabriel Valley and a significant part of the Los Angeles coastal plain, emptying into the Pacific Ocean between the cities of Long Beach and Seal Beach.
The Whittier Narrows is a narrows or water gap in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States, between the Puente Hills to the east and the Montebello Hills to the west. The gap is located at the southern boundary of the San Gabriel Valley, through which the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel River flow to enter the Los Angeles Basin. The Narrows is located near the convergence of Interstate 605 and California State Route 60.
The San Gabriel River Trail is a 28-mile (45 km) bike path along the San Gabriel River through El Dorado Regional Park and onto street bike trails near the Alamitos Bay Marina in Los Angeles County, California. The South end is Seal Beach. The northern segment begins near Whittier Narrows Recreation Area.
The Duarte bicycle path is a Class 1 bike path in Duarte, California that parallels Royal Oaks Drive from Buena Vista Street to Royal Oaks Park for about 1.6 miles (2.6 km).
Hansen Dam is a flood control dam in the northeastern San Fernando Valley, in the Lake View Terrace neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The dam was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District in 1940. Hansen Dam was named after horse ranchers Homer and Marie Hansen, who established a ranch in the 19th century.
The Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity National Recreation Area is a United States National Recreation Area in northern California. The recreation area was authorized in 1965 by the United States Congress. Recreational activities available include swimming, fishing, boating, camping, and hiking.
Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, or Kenneth Hahn Park, is a state park unit of California in the Baldwin Hills Mountains of Los Angeles. The park is managed by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. As one of the largest urban parks and regional open spaces in the Greater Los Angeles Area, many have called it "L.A.'s Central Park". The 401-acre (1.62 km2) park was established in 1984. The land was previously the Baldwin Hills Reservoir, which failed catastrophically in the 1963 Baldwin Hills Dam disaster.
The Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California (RPFS) is a Renaissance faire that takes place at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale, California. Since the first one was held in the spring of 1963, it has been an annual event. Owned by Renaissance Entertainment Productions (REP), it is a commercial reenactment of a 1580s market faire at Port Deptford, a waterfront town in Elizabethan era England. The Faire is generally open from the first weekend of April through the weekend before Memorial Day.
The American River is a 30-mile-long (50 km) river in California that runs from the Sierra Nevada mountain range to its confluence with the Sacramento River in downtown Sacramento. Via the Sacramento River, it is part of the San Francisco Bay watershed. This river is fed by the melting snowpack of the Sierra Nevada and its many headwaters and tributaries, including its North, Middle, and South Forks.
Santa Fe Dam is a flood-control dam on the San Gabriel River located in Irwindale in Los Angeles County, California, United States. For most of the year, the 92-foot (28 m)-high dam and its reservoir lie empty, but can hold more than 45,000 acre-feet (56,000,000 m3) of water during major storms. During the dry season, the basin behind the dam is used for groundwater recharge, as well as various recreational activities.
Irwindale station is an at-grade light rail station on the A Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. It is located at the intersection of Irwindale Avenue and Avenida Padilla in Irwindale, California, after which the station is named. This station opened on March 5, 2016, as part of Phase 2A of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Project.
The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation is an agency of the County of Los Angeles which oversees its parks and recreational facilities. It was created in 1944. It operates and maintains over 71,249 acres (28,833 ha) of parks, gardens, lakes, natural gardens, and golfing greens, and 200 miles (320 km) of trails.
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