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15-833: The canyon cuts through the Sierra Pelona Mountains , which are central part of the Transverse Ranges system of California . At the San Francisquito Canyon head is the San Francisquito Pass , which the early routes between Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley crossed. The canyon grows wider as it approaches the Santa Clarita Valley . The middle and upper portions of this canyon fall within

30-649: A small extension west of I-5. The Tejon Pass separates the Sierra Pelonas, the San Emigdios , the Tehachapis , and the Topatopa Mountains near Gorman and Lebec . Within the Sierra Pelonas lie the rural areas of Neenach , Three Points , Lake Hughes , Elizabeth Lake , Acton , Agua Dulce and Green Valley . The cities of Santa Clarita , Palmdale , and Lancaster are located at

45-433: A two-lane road named after the canyon itself connects Santa Clarita to the mountain communities of Green Valley and Elizabeth Lake . It roughly parallels the river's course between San Francisquito Pass and its southern terminus in the northern Santa Clarita Valley . [REDACTED] Media related to San Francisquito Canyon at Wikimedia Commons Sierra Pelona Mountains The Sierra Pelona , also known as

60-638: The Angeles National Forest . San Francisquito Canyon was the site of placer mining for gold by Spanish missionaries from the San Fernando and San Buenaventura Missions , and later by Mexican Californios . Their activity stopped in 1848, when the gold discovery at Sutter's Mill started the California Gold Rush . Placer mining later occurred in the canyon into at least the late 19th century. Between 1924 and 1926,

75-776: The San Gabriel Mountains , which are divided by the wide Soledad Canyon formation. The mountains are flanked to the south by the Santa Clarita Valley and separated from the Antelope Valley and the Mojave Desert to the north by the San Andreas Fault . Toward the southeast lie Vasquez Rocks , thrust up by the fault. Toward the west lies Interstate 5 , Pyramid Lake , and the Los Padres National Forest . The range has

90-616: The Santa Clara River and numerous minor watercourses and washes drain the ridge: Castaic Creek , San Francisquito Creek , and Bouquet Creek . Three sag ponds nestle within the narrow valley that divides the mountains from the Antelope Valley: Hughes Lake , Munz Lakes , and Elizabeth Lake . The Native population of California in the Sierra Pelona and Santa Susana Mountains included

105-666: The Sierra Pelona Ridge or the Sierra Pelona Mountains , is a mountain ridge in the Transverse Ranges in Southern California . Located in northwest Los Angeles County , the ridge is bordered on the north by the San Andreas Fault and lies within and is surrounded by the Angeles National Forest and a tiny section in the Los Padres National Forest The Sierra Pelona Mountains lie northwest of

120-672: The Tataviam and Serrano people. They traded with the Tongva and Chumash to the south and west, until the Spanish colonization of the Americas relocated them from their homelands. The San Francisquito Canyon , which runs north-south through the mountains, served as a major wagon route between the Antelope and San Fernando Valleys. This corridor summited at San Francisquito Pass and

135-629: The 20th century and remains the second-greatest loss of life in California's history, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The ruins of this disaster can still be seen today. Since 1820, San Francisquito Canyon and San Francisquito Pass were part of the original route of the El Camino Viejo , an alternate land route to the El Camino Real for reaching northern Spanish and Mexican colonial Alta California . From 1854,

150-717: The Ridge Route Alternate ( US 99 ) in 1930, itself superseded by Interstate 5 completed in 1971. The rapid development of Southern California throughout the 20th century saw construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and five separate reservoirs to supply water to the region: Castaic Lake , Bouquet Reservoir , Drinkwater Reservoir, Pyramid Lake and Dry Canyon Reservoir and the St. Francis Reservoir , both now drained and destroyed. Antelope Valley Too Many Requests If you report this error to

165-518: The base of the mountains. The climate of the mountains is a Mediterranean climate . Summers are mostly dry except for occasional thunderstorms, and winters comparatively cold and wet. Snowfall is infrequent due to the relatively low elevations of mountains within this ridge, with only the few tallest peaks regularly receiving snowfall during the winter. Mainly the ridge falls under the California montane chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, excepting

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180-480: The canyon was the site of the construction of the St. Francis Dam . The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began filling a reservoir in the San Francisquito Canyon in 1926. At 11:57   pm on March 12, 1928, the dam catastrophically failed, and the resulting flood took the lives of at least 431 people. The collapse of the St. Francis Dam is considered to be one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of

195-533: The northeastern flank's gradual slope into the Antelope Valley near Palmdale where the ecology transitions to that of the Mojave Desert . The mountains are primarily covered in short grasses, scrub oak trees, yucca , and other chaparral shrubs. The ridge is prone to wildfires in the summer and fall, especially when the Santa Ana winds blow in from the Antelope Valley. Three major tributaries of

210-754: The wagon route of the Stockton - Los Angeles Road followed its course as did the Butterfield Overland Mail in California from 1858 to 1861. This Tejon Pass Route and the Tehachapi or Midway Route (first followed by the Southern Pacific Railroad), remained the major north–south wagon and later automobile routes to the San Joaquin Valley until the construction of the more direct Ridge Route in 1915. Today,

225-406: Was part of the El Camino Viejo - an alternate land route to the El Camino Real for reaching northern Spanish and Mexican colonial Alta California - as well as the Butterfield Overland Mail route. The Ridge Route , a landmark two-lane highway that connected Los Angeles to the rest of California, was built along the western flank of the ridge and was completed in 1915. It was later bypassed by

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