The San Rafael Hills are a mountain range in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. They are one of the lower

Transverse Ranges 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 ...

, and are parallel to and below the

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains ( es, Sierra de San Gabriel) are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies betw ...

, adjacent to the

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley ( es, Valle de San Gabriel) is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles, and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part ...

overlooking the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an anomalous group of east-west trending chains of mountains collectively known as the ...

Geography

The San Rafael Hills contain all or parts of the communities of City Terrace,

La Cañada Flintridge LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...

, Pasadena, South Pasadena, El Sereno,

Monterey Hills Monterey Hills is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. Development history The Monterey Hills Redevelopment Project, adopted by City Council on July 29, 1971, includes the development of a well planned residential community that provides a ...

Montecito Heights Montecito Heights is a neighborhood in the Northeast Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California. The population in 2000 was estimated at 16,768. Geography and transportation Montecito Heights' boundaries are roughly the Pasadena Freeway ( SR ...

, Cypress Park,

Mount Washington Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934 ...

, Glassell Park and foothills surrounding Eagle Rock, east of the Glendale Freeway including

Rancho San Rafael Rancho San Rafael was a Spanish land grant in the San Rafael Hills, bordering the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco in present-day Los Angeles County, southern California, given in 1784 to Jose Maria Verdugo. Geography The rancho includes ...

and Chevy Chase Canyon in

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia *Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre * Glendale, Queensland, ...

. They define the valley area of Pasadena and San Marino, and retain a large

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characte ...

on the hills' north side, from the San Gabriel Valley.

History

They were the homeland, with settlements, of the

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...

Native American people for over 8,000 years before the Spanish invasion and

colonization Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

of the late 18th century. They are named after the

, a 1784 Spanish land grant beyond the hills to the west.

Landmarks

The hillside campus of

Art Center College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred ...

, a Pasadena historic resource, is located in the San Rafael Hills.

Ernest E. Debs Regional Park Ernest E. Debs Regional Park is a large open space nature reserve and regional park in the Montecito Hills neighborhood of central-northeast Los Angeles, California. It is named after former County Supervisor Ernest E. Debs. The park is operat ...

is a large nature preserve and

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distri ...

in the western section of the hills, with walking and bicycle trails.

References

{{Reflist Transverse Ranges Mountain ranges of Los Angeles County, California Hills of California Geography of Los Angeles Geography of Pasadena, California Geography of the San Gabriel Valley Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County) Northeast Los Angeles San Gabriel Mountains Eagle Rock, Los Angeles Glassell Park, Los Angeles Highland Park, Los Angeles La Cañada Flintridge, California Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles Montecito Heights, Los Angeles San Marino, California South Pasadena, California Mountain ranges of Southern California

Geography

History

Landmarks

See also

References