Mountain Home, also known as Casa Loma (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

for "Mountain Home"), is a sparsely populated area located on the eastern side of the Santa Cruz Mountains in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

southwest

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together ...

near Mount Chual and Rancho Canada del Oro Open Space Preserves. The Loma Fire burned about one half of the region in 2016.

Geography

The area is situated within the upper Llagas Creek watershed, bounded by Mount Chual and Rancho Canada del Oro Open Space Preserves toward the north,

Loma Prieta Loma Prieta (from Spanish ''loma'' -hill, ''prieta'' -dark) is high and is the highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. Although the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was named for this mountain, the actual epicenter was ...

Road on the west, Loma Chiquita Road on the south, and Twin Creeks Road on the east. The region includes small communities along

Casa Loma Casa Loma (improper Spanish for "Hill House") is a Gothic Revival castle-style mansion and garden in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that is now a historic house museum and landmark. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914 as a residence for fina ...

Road, Mt Chual Spur Road, and Twin Falls Road. The area is mostly mountain ridges with steep, sloping terrain and narrow canyons. The Berrocal Fault runs diagonally through the center of the area. Native vegetation ranges from a mixed conifer-

oak woodland An oak woodland is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (''Quercus spp.''). In terms of canopy closure, oak woodlands are intermediate between oak savanna, which is more open, and oak forest, which is more closed. Although the ...

along the mountain ridges, to chaparral and

coastal 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 ...

along the slopes, to riparian flora along the canyon floors.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Mountain Home has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

History

In 2016, the Loma Fire burned through approximately half the region, with multiple homes damaged or destroyed.

References

{{SF Bay Area Unincorporated communities in Santa Clara County, California Unincorporated communities in California