Redonda Mesa is a

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...

type formation located in the southern

Santa Ana Mountains The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riverside co ...

, near the Pacific Ocean in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. It is located in an unincorporated area of southwestern

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...

. The highest point of Redonda Mesa is in elevation.

Geography

Redonda Mesa lies near the Riverside-San Diego County Line, several miles northeast of

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by Oc ...

and west of

Temecula Temecula (; es, Temécula, ; Luiseño: ''Temeekunga'') is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The city had a population of 110,003 as of the 2020 census and was incorporated on December 1, 1989. The city is a t ...

. The views from atop the mesa on clear days can include: *to the south, Oceanside,

Fallbrook Fallbrook is a CDP in northern San Diego County, California. Fallbrook had a population of 30,534 at the 2010 census, up from 29,100 at the 2000 census. Fallbrook's downtown is not on a major highway route. It is west of Interstate 15 or n ...

, De Luz and Bonsall. *To the north, one can see more of the interior

. *To the east, the

Temecula Valley The Temecula Valley is a graben rift valley in western Riverside County, California. The Temecula Valley is one of the graben valleys making up the Elsinore Trough, created by the Elsinore Fault Zone. It lies between the Wildomar Fault on the e ...

is below, as well as Anza and the

San Jacinto Mountains The San Jacinto Mountains (''Avii Hanupach''Munro, P., et al. ''A Mojave Dictionary''. Los Angeles: UCLA. 1992. in Mojave) are a mountain range in Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mou ...

further east. *to the west,

with some of the last major undeveloped coastal land in Southern California, the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, as well as Santa Catalina Island on very clear days, and one can see parts of coastal city

San Clemente San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement") is a city in Orange County, California. Located in the Orange Coast region of the South Coast of California, San Clemente's population was 64,293 in at the 2020 census. Situated roughly midway betwee ...

northwest in lower

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

. This mesa's natural areas are vegetated with flora of the

Coastal sage scrub 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 w ...

plant community A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant co ...

, an increasingly endangered one in Southern California. Ranchosantarosa 013

History

In the late 1960s the top of Redonda Mesa (along with several parcels in the valley below) was purchased from the Rancho California Land Company by Edward E. Sharp of

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

, a leading real estate broker in the region. During the 1970s, prior to the development of fiber optic transmission capabilities, the mesa's unrestricted views from San Diego County to Orange County made it the ideal location for a microwave relay station which was the backbone of telephone communications in the era.

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

purchased on the top of Redonda Mesa from the Sharp Family Trust and in about 1981. The company built a high tower with numerous white "cones" pointed toward transmission and receiving stations in the Oceanside and San Clemente areas. The tower served the region for about a decade and then fell into disuse as new technologies took over. Looking to divest itself of the surplus property, AT&T sold Redonda Mesa back to the Sharp Family Trust in 2002. The trust then sold it to Herbert Massinger, who remodeled the site's unique microwave relay tower into a newly-refurbished residence on 20 acres with ocean views of Catalina, San Clemente and the Coronado Islands off of Mexico on a clear day.

Gallery

File:Ranchosantarosa 010.JPG, Microwave relay tower after the cones were removed File:Ranchosantarosa 050.JPG, View to the south of northern San Diego County File:Ranchosantarosa 055.JPG, View southwest of Camp Pendleton and the Pacific Ocean File:Ranchosantarosa 012.JPG, Redonda Mesa Ranch gate File:Ranchosantarosa 030.JPG, Water tank on the ranch

References

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External links

17mile.com: Photo Gallery of to Tenaja, LaCresta, & DeLuz in the Santa Ana Mountains.

Santa Ana Mountains Landforms of Riverside County, California Mesas of California Landforms of Southern California