Santiago Canyon is a canyon and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in eastern

Orange County, California Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population ...

. According to the 2000 census, Santiago Canyon has several hundred residents living within its borders.

Trabuco Canyon Trabuco Canyon (''Trabuco'', Spanish for "Blunderbuss") is a small unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County, California, and lies partly within the Cl ...

Silverado Canyon Silverado Canyon is a roughly 2,500-foot-deep (760 m) gorge in the Santa Ana Mountains, in the U.S. state of California. The small stream it is associated with, Silverado Creek, rises on the north slope of Modjeska Peak at the elevation of and ...

Modjeska Canyon Modjeska Canyon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) on the western slope of the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County, California. It is a suburban community of several hundred residents, with a small park a ...

and Williams Canyon are tributaries of Santiago Canyon. Santiago Creek flows northwest from the canyon, then west into the

Santa Ana River The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino and Riversid ...

. Neighborhoods in Santiago Canyon include Santiago Canyon Estates and Falcon View Estates. The landmark

Cook's Corner Cook's Corner is an Orange County, California, Orange County, California bar built in 1884 that is popular with motorcyclists. It is located between the city of Lake Forest, California, Lake Forest and the unincorporated community of Silverado ...

motorcycle restaurant is also located within Santiago Canyon. The ZIP Code is 92676, and the community is in

area code 949 Area code 949 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California in southern Orange County. The area code was assigned on April 18, 1998, to a numbering plan area that resulted from a boundary c ...

History

Within the canyons, there are excellent examples of exfoliation, in which rock layers peel back like layers of an onion, and of frost wedging, in which ice trapped in a crack expands to split a rock. Fossils of millions of clams, snails, and small-shelled, squid-like creatures left behind during the five times that seas washed over the ground can be found. Appearing more than 12 million years ago, the highest points surrounding the canyons are

Santiago Peak Santiago Peak is the southern mountain of the Saddleback landform in Orange County and Riverside County, California. It is the highest and most prominent peak of both the Santa Ana Mountains and Orange County. The peak is named for Santiag ...

at and

Modjeska Peak Modjeska Peak is the northern mountain of the Saddleback landform in Orange County California. It is the second-highest peak of the Santa Ana Mountains, after Santiago Peak, whose summit is less than to the northwest. Modjeska lies within Cl ...

at . Together the pair forms " Old Saddleback," an easily recognizable landmark. The first people to live in the canyons were Native Americans (the

Acjachemem The Acjachemen () are an Indigenous people of California. Published maps often identify their ancestral lands as extending from the beach to the mountains, south from what is now known as Aliso Creek in Orange County to Las Pulgas Canyon in the ...

). They arrived to find dense woods filled with

live oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are generally not more closely related to each other than they are to o ...

sycamore Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the Ancient Greek () meaning . Species of otherwise unrelated trees known as sycamore: * ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', a ...

mountain ash Mountain ash may refer to: * ''Eucalyptus regnans'', the tallest of all flowering plants, native to Australia * Mountain-ashes or rowans, varieties of trees and shrubs in the genus ''Sorbus'' See also

* Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, a town ...

, and

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

s buffeted by winds. Dependent on acorns and less-plentiful pine nuts as their staple foods, the Native Americans cut paths through the

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

vegetation to reach oak and pine groves. After collecting the acorns, they carried them to canyon streams and immersed the nuts in the running water to leach out the bitter

tannic acid Tannic acid is a specific form of tannin, a type of polyphenol. Its weak acidity (Acid dissociation constant, pKa around 6) is due to the numerous phenol groups in the structure. The chemical formula for commercial tannic acid is often given as ...

. Once done, they carried the acorns to a large boulder or rock outcropping, where they used mortars to grind the nuts into powder. Over open fires, they cooked a porridge called "atole." The first European land exploration of

Alta California Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...

, the Spanish Portolà expedition, skirted the southern edge of the Santiago Hills, crossing Santiago Creek before reaching the Santa Ana River. On its way north, the party camped in the area on July 26–27, 1769. The return journey to

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

retraced its steps through the area, stopping on January 19, 1770.

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

missionary

Juan Crespi ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philipp ...

noted in his diary entry for July 27: "It he creekcomes down from the mountains, and shows that it must have plenty of water in the rainy season. It was given the name of the holy apostle and patron of the Spains, Santiago." Santiago Canyon was home to one of the major

California wildfires of October 2007 The October 2007 California wildfires, also known as the Fall 2007 California firestorm, were a series of about thirty wildfires (17 of which became major wildfires) that began igniting across Southern California on October 20. At least 1,500 h ...

. The " Santiago Fire" endangered the Santiago Canyon Estates, as well as Falcon View Estates and nearby

, and other areas. All homeowners in those communities were placed under mandatory

evacuation Evacuation or Evacuate may refer to: * Casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), patient evacuation in combat situations * Casualty movement, the procedure for moving a casualty from its initial location to an ambulance * Emergency evacuation, removal of pers ...

, with the roads Plano Trabuco and Live Oak Canyon being temporarily closed for the use of emergency personnel. The fire was ignited on October 21, 2007, and was attributed to

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

ists. It has burned over , and the cost of rebuilding is estimated to be $5.5 million.

Recreation

Hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

and

mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

are the two common forms of recreation in Santiago Canyon, due to the area's mountainous terrain. Some popular trails include the Modjeska Trail and Live Oak Canyon Trail, both available for hiking and mountain biking. Santiago Canyon's signature recreation trail is the Santiago Truck Trail, ideal for hiking, running, and mountain biking. The Santiago Truck Trail stretches , to the trail end, "Old Camp".

Bird watching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

is also a prominent activity in the canyon; native birds in the area include the

turkey vulture The turkey vulture (''Cathartes aura'') is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus '' Cathartes'' of the family Cathartidae, the turkey vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of Sou ...

red tailed hawk The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members of ...

, and

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

, all of which can be seen in the

Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary is a non-profit nature reserve owned and operated by the Environmental Nature Center (ENC). It is located at the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County, California, in the United States near the end of Modjeska Canyon, at t ...

in neighboring Modjeska Canyon as well.

Motorcyclist Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. For some people, motorcycling may be the only affordable form of individual motorized transportation, and small-displacement motorcycles are the most common motor vehicle in the most populous co ...

s and

bicyclist Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world for pur ...

s are common sights in Santiago Canyon. The California historic landmark site Cooks Corner restaurant is a favorite among motorcyclists.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Orange County, California Santa Ana Mountains Unincorporated communities in California