Chapter 1: Regions and Ecoregions

Welcome to Santa Clarita!

If you're looking for a nice area to live in southern California, look no further than Santa Clarita.  As of recently, Santa Clarita has adopted the name of Awesometown because Santa Clarita is where awesome lives.  Those who live there are both proud and entertained at the city's new image.  Santa Clarita is often abbreviated as SCV.

 Santa Clarita is located in Southern California, 31.4 miles north of Los Angeles, 37 minutes via car.  CSUN is a 25 minute car ride from Santa Clarita, putting it 16.1 miles away.  In total, the city of Santa Clarita is 62.16 square miles, 62.095 square miles of that being land, and the rest being occupied by water.

In terms of city population, Santa is ranked 3rd in the Los Angeles County, 19th in all of California, and 105th in the entire United States of America.  The state of California is ranked 3rd in regards to area and 1st in the entire country when it comes to population.  About 1 out of every 8 Americans lives in the Golden State.  The population of SCV is 204,951.  70% of which is White, 28% that is Hispanic of Latino, 3.2% African American, 0.6% Native American, 8.5% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, and 12% other races.

Santa Clarita is a large city, that contains all of the separate communities of Canyon Country, Valencia, Saugus, and Newhall.  Its very close to the I-5 Golden State and the Atelope Valey SR-14 freeway.

Santa Clarita is close the the San Fernando fault zone, so it is at risk for earthquakes and has been effected by the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and the 1994 Northridge earthquakes. 

Santa Clarita is the "homebase" for both Mannkind and Princess Cruises.  It is very well known internationally for its theme park, Magic Mountain, that has a number of world record rollercoasters.  The colleges within SCV are The Master's College, College of the Canyons, and the California Institute of Arts.

Santa Clarita, although it may not appear to be so, is a desert.  It has a lot of dry hills with brush.  These type of conditions often make it very possible for fires to occur, which is one of the greatest dangers for the area.  The dryness and heat is often attributed to its closeness in proximity to the Mojave Desert. In the hotter parts of the year, the temperature stays close to around the 90's and low 100's.  Winters aren't especially cold, with the temperatures varying anywhere between high-40's to mid-70's (on average).  Snow is extremely rare being that the temperature very rarely drops below freezing.