Wildwood Canyon is a canyon and California state park in the eastern foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, within San Bernardino County, southern California. [1]
It is located near the city of Yucaipa, in the Inland Empire region. It is surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest on the eastern and northern sides. [1]
The indigenous Cahuilla were traditionally active in the area of Wildwood Canyon, as were the Serrano and Tongva. The area near Yucaipa was known as a crossroads for traveling indigenous people. [1]
Historic buildings remain in the park from the 1930s Hi Up House ranch and 1940s Hunt Ranch eras. [1]
After a flood threatened developers' housing subdivision plans, the California Department of Parks and Recreation acquired 900 acres (360 ha) in the canyon. In May 2003 a park dedication ceremony was held at Wildwood Canyon. [1]
Wildwood Canyon State Park is currently open only for day use, from sunrise to sunset. The primary activities are horseback riding, hiking, and mountain biking. [1]
The canyon lies between the San Andreas Fault on the north and the San Jacinto Fault to the south.
Wildwood Canyon hosts diverse wildlife. Birds commonly seen include the California quail, western meadowlark, towhee, phainopepla, red-tailed hawk, Bewicks wren, Bullocks oriole, and white-tailed kite. Bobcats, black bears, gray foxes can be found in the park. Mountain lions use the canyon as a wildlife corridor. The San Diego pocket mouse, a threatened species due to declining to habitat loss, is found in the canyon. [1]
The dominant plant communities are grasslands in most open areas, and chaparral sage scrub on the slopes. Dominant chaparral plants include chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum), scrub oak (Quercus berberidifolia), California lilacs (Ceanothus), and black sage (Salvia mellifera). buckwheat, monkey flower, Lord's candle and silk tassel bush.
Interior live oaks (Quercus wislizenii) and California sycamore (Platanus racemosa) woodlands along drainages and in the canyons. [1]
Chaparral is a shrubland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate and infrequent, high-intensity crown fires, featuring summer-drought-tolerant plants with hard sclerophyllous evergreen leaves, as contrasted with the associated soft-leaved, drought-deciduous, scrub community of coastal sage scrub, found often on drier, southern facing slopes within the chaparral biome. Three other closely related chaparral shrubland systems occur in central Arizona, western Texas, and along the eastern side of central Mexico's mountain chains (mexical), all having summer rains in contrast to the Mediterranean climate of other chaparral formations. Chaparral comprises 9% of the California's wildland vegetation and contains 20% of its plant species. The name comes from the Spanish word for place of the scrub oak, chaparro.
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 Peninsular Ranges are a group of mountain ranges that stretch 1,500 km (930 mi) from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges, which run along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to Mexico. Elevations range from 500 to 10,834 feet.
Chino Hills State Park is a state park of California, in the United States. It is located in the Chino Hills, foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. It is a critical link in the Chino–Puente Hills wildlife corridor, and a major botanical habitat reserve for resident and migrating wildlife.
The Tehachapi Mountains are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately 40 miles (64 km) in southern Kern County and northwestern Los Angeles County and form part of the boundary between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert.
Mount Tamalpais is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Marin Municipal Water District watershed, and National Park Service land, such as Muir Woods.
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.
The Northern California coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of coastal Northern California and southwestern Oregon.
The San Bernardino Valley is a valley in Southern California. It lies at the south base of the Transverse Ranges. It is bordered on the north by the eastern San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains; on the east by the San Jacinto Mountains; and on the south by the Temescal Mountains and Santa Ana Mountains; and on the west by the Pomona Valley. Elevation varies from 590 feet (180 m) on valley floors near Chino, where it gradually increases to about 1,380 feet (420 m) near San Bernardino and Redlands. The valley floor is home to over 80% of the more than 4 million people of the Inland Empire region.
Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.
The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is a National Monument in southern California. It includes portions of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, the northernmost ones of the Peninsular Ranges system. The national monument covers portions of Riverside County, west of the Coachella Valley, approximately 100 miles (160 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
California oak woodland is a plant community found throughout the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California in the United States and northwestern Baja California in Mexico. Oak woodland is widespread at lower elevations in coastal California; in interior valleys of the Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges; and in a ring around the California Central Valley grasslands. The dominant trees are oaks, interspersed with other broadleaf and coniferous trees, with an understory of grasses, herbs, geophytes, and California native plants.
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park located on the north slope of the western San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, within the city of Santa Clarita's sphere of influence.
The California coastal sage and chaparral is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion located in southwestern California and northwestern Baja California (Mexico). It is part of the larger California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion.
The California montane chaparral and woodlands is an ecoregion defined by the World Wildlife Fund, spanning 7,900 square miles (20,000 km2) of mountains in the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and Coast Ranges of southern and central California. The ecoregion is part of the larger California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, and belongs to the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.
The California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion covers 24,900 square miles (64,000 km2) in an elliptical ring around the California Central Valley. It occurs on hills and mountains ranging from 300 feet (91 m) to 3,000 feet (910 m). It is part of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Many plant and animal species in this ecoregion are adapted to periodic fire.
Circle X Ranch is a park unit located in the Triunfo Pass within the southwestern Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, in Ventura County, California. It is located in the western Santa Monica Mountains.
The Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks are a collection of protected areas in Orange County, California in and around Irvine. They encompass almost 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) of land which was once a part of the Irvine Ranch owned by the Irvine Company. Almost 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) of the landmarks were designated a National Natural Landmark in 2006 and a California Natural Landmark in 2008.
Oak Canyon Nature Center is a nature preserve located in Anaheim, Southern California. Owned by the city, the park spans an area of 58-acres, comprising three adjoining canyons of the Santa Ana foothills. It has an elevation range from 525 to 825 feet ., and contains three major vegetation zones: coastal sage scrub, oak woodland and riparian. Open on weekends, the John J. Collier Interpretive Center features a museum with live animal and regional natural history exhibits.
Coordinates: 34°00′52″N117°01′10″W / 34.01444°N 117.01944°W