San Clemente Canyon is a canyon located in the city of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

.
Marian Bear Memorial Park, a linear open space park, is along the canyon and in the southern tributary arroyos and mesa.

Park

The canyon and Marian Bear Memorial Park parallels the San Clemente Canyon Freeway (State Route 52) (along northern canyon slopes), between its junctions with

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

(on west) and

Interstate 805 Interstate 805 (I-805) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running roughly through the center of the Greater San Diego region from San Ysidro (part of the c ...

(on east) at the ends. The park provides a natural setting in the midst of a busy urban area. The of dedicated natural parkland include finger canyons and mesas on the south side.Sandiego.gov: History of Marian Bear Memorial Park + San Clemente Canyon
/ref> The main canyon and its tributaries continue to support a population of resident wildlife including raccoons, skunks, rabbits,

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

s, reptiles, and birds, and serve as a pathway for coyote, fox, and other native mammals. Along the length of the canyon are

coast live oak ''Quercus agrifolia'', the California live oak, or coast live oak, is a highly variable, often evergreen oak tree, a type of live oak, native to the California Floristic Province. It may be shrubby, depending on age and growing location, but is ...

California sycamore ''Platanus racemosa'' is a species of plane tree known by several common names, including California sycamore, western sycamore, California plane tree, and in North American Spanish aliso. ''Platanus racemosa'' is native to California and Baja C ...

, and native willow tree woodlands, with an undergrowth of native and other plant species. The

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature 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 c ...

and

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

California native plant communities are closely defined by their microclimates and underlying soils.

History

The Native American

Kumeyaay people The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...

had historically inhabited the area of San Diego County for 10,000 years and was home to a Kumeyaay village called ''Onap,'' at the intersection of the San Clemente Canyon and Rose Canyon. Evidence of their presence still remains in San Clemente Canyon. In the late 19th century, this area was named Clemente Canyon for a native American rancher. During the 1970s its natural ecosystem and

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s were threatened by plans to place the San Clemente Canyon Freeway (State Route 52) along the canyon floor. Marian Bear, an active

community leader Community leader is a designation, often by secondary sources (particularly in the media), for a person widely perceived to represent a community. A simple way to understand community leadership is to see it as leadership in, for and by the communit ...

and

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

, worked to preserve the canyon in its natural state. She was the driving force behind realigning the highway from the canyon floor to the north hillsides above it. In the 1980s another community campaign resulted in an additional 72 acres in the southeast section added, for the present total of 467 acres.

Canyon geology

Over 40 million years ago an ocean covered San Clemente Canyon during the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

epoch of the

Paleogene period The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning o ...

. Horizontal lines of round rocks at many levels, separated by clay and sand, represent the various levels of the ocean washing sand away and leaving rocks at surf level. Fossilized

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s, such as snails and clams from that period are still found in the canyon's walls. The fossils are preserved in the sandstones and siltstones of the

Scripps Formation The Scripps Formation is a geologic formation in coastal San Diego County, California. San-diego.us ...

that is best exposed in the roadcuts along Regents Road and Genesee Avenue.

References

External links

San Diego Park & Recreation Department: official Marian Bear Memorial Park website
{{clr Canyons and gorges of California Parks in San Diego Natural history of San Diego County, California Geology of San Diego County, California

Park

History

Canyon geology

See also

References

Further reading

External links