Rancho Santa Margarita, California

O'Neil Regional Park is a major regional park and greenway in northeast Orange County, California in the United States, located along Trabuco Creek and Live Oak Canyon. The park encompasses 4,500 acres (1,800 ha) of canyon and riparian zone habitat, and includes campgrounds and trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. The park was first established in 1948 when the owners of the O'Neill Ranch donated 278 acres (113 ha) of land for recreation purposes. Numerous land acquisitions between 1948 and 1982 brought the park to its present size. Many flora and fauna can be sighted, such as poison oak, bobcats and mountain lions, which are very rare.

Santa Margarita Catholic High School (SMCHS) is a coeducational college preparatory Roman Catholic high school located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, United States. SMCHS is owned and operated by the Diocese of Orange, and was opened in 1987 under the direction of the Bishop of Orange. Although it follows the Catholic tradition, admission is open to students of all faiths. As of fall 2018, 1,673 students were enrolled in grades 9 through 12.SMCHS opened in the fall of 1987, the first Catholic high school to serve South Orange County. Its 42-acre (170,000 m2) campus is adjacent to the San Francisco Solano parish church. Accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Santa Margarita is one of three International Baccalaureate World Schools in California, in addition to offering Advanced Placement (AP) courses and exams. SMCHS also offers a comprehensive Auxiliary Studies Program (ASP) to help students who learn differently than others. The Class of 2015 earned $30 million in scholarship offers.

Trabuco Oaks Steakhouse is a steakhouse located in the unincorporated community of Trabuco Canyon, California. The semi-casual restaurant serves steak and potatoes and liquor at its bar. Trabuco Oaks Steakhouse is famous for its no-tie policy; if a patron is wearing a tie at the restaurant, it is cut off and hung from the ceiling alongside many other ties.

Trabuco Canyon (Trabuco, Spanish for "Blunderbuss") is a small unincorporated community located in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County, California, and lies partly within the Cleveland National Forest. Trabuco Canyon is north of the town of Rancho Santa Margarita. Plano Trabuco Road leads from the top of the canyon south to Rancho Santa Margarita.

Rancho Trabuco was a 22,184-acre (89.78 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Orange County, California. The five square league grant consisted of two square leagues given in 1841 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Santiago Argüello plus three square leagues given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to John (Don Juan) Forster. The name "trabuco" means "blunderbuss" in Spanish. The grant extended along Trabuco Creek and Trabuco Canyon, and encompassed present-day Coto de Caza. The grant was bordered by Rancho Cañada de los Alisos on the west, and by Rancho Mission Viejo on the east.

The monastery was originally developed in 1942 during WWII by Gerald Heard, a disciple of Swami Prabhavananda of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Established as Trabuco College, it was meant to be a religious, non-sectarian, co-ed monastery, unaffiliated with any particular religious organization. Aldous Huxley, a close friend of Heard, spent 6 weeks there working on his book The Perennial Philosophy. However, the experiment failed and Heard donated the land and buildings to the Vedanta Society of Southern California as a male-only monastery. It was consecrated on September 7, 1949 by Swami Prabhavananda, as the Ramakrishna Monastery. It is located on a 40-acre property in the rolling hills of Trabuco Canyon, California. It bears the name of the great Indian mystic, Sri Ramakrishna, founder of the Ramakrishna Order of India. The Ramakrishna Monastery is part of the Vedanta Society of Southern California and is an American branch of the Ramakrishna Order of India.

The Airport Fire was a wildfire that burned 23,526 acres (9,521 ha) in the Santa Ana Mountains in Southern California in September and October 2024. The fire destroyed 160 structures in Orange and Riverside counties and caused 21 non-fatal injuries. At its peak, 20,780 structures were threatened by the fire. The fire was accidentally ignited on September 9, 2024, by Orange County Public Works employees conducting fire prevention measures in the unincorporated community of Trabuco Canyon. It spread towards the city of Rancho Santa Margarita and eastward into the Santa Ana Mountains, where it crossed over the ridge of Santiago Peak into Riverside County. The Airport Fire forced mandatory evacuation orders in various Southern California communities, particularly in Lake Elsinore and along Ortega Highway where many structures were damaged or destroyed. The incident happened concurrently with the Line Fire in San Bernardino County and the Bridge Fire in Los Angeles County, straining available firefighting resources and creating a smoky, unhealthy air quality that reached as far as Las Vegas. California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in response to the fires.

The Joplin Youth Center is a male juvenile facility situated in the Santa Ana Mountains near the unincorporated community of Trabuco Canyon, California. The facility is operated by the Orange County Department of Probation and houses minors convicted of various crimes. The site features several buildings, a basketball court, a soccer field, and a pond down the hill from the main compound. Being in the Santa Ana Mountains, the facility is surrounded by natural chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and woodland environments. The facility is only accessible via Rose Canyon Road and a small dirt path that winds upward from Trabuco Creek Road. The Joplin Youth Center was founded in 1956 when Andrew B. Joplin, the namesake of the site, donated 320 acres of land to be used for juvenile detention services. The yearly budget of the detention center in 2008 was US$4,700,000.On average, inmates stay at the facility for 30 to 90 days. Inmates wear color-coded shirts to indicate the amount of time spent at the facility as well as their behavior, thus correlating with what recreational privileges they may receive. Joplin Youth Center receives many detainees with gang ties and pays for the removal of gang-affiliated tattoos.During the United States COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the facility was vacated of juvenile inmates and was utilized as shelter for elderly homeless people of the county who did not show signs of infection.

Saint Michael's Abbey is a Norbertine monastery in Silverado, Orange County, California. The members of the community combine a monastic-style life with active priestly ministry.

Saint Michael's Preparatory School was a private, Roman Catholic, college preparatory boys' boarding school in Silverado, California. It was located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. It was owned and operated by the Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael's Abbey, who established it in 1961 as St. Michael's Junior Seminary and Novitiate. The school was closed in June 2020 due to the Abbey moving to a new location.

Coto de Caza (Spanish for "Hunting Reserve") is a census-designated place (CDP) and guard-gated private community in Orange County, California, United States. The population was 14,710 at the 2020 census. The CDP is a suburban planned community of about 4,000 homes and one of Orange County's oldest and most expensive master-planned communities. The project began in 1968, when it was envisioned as a hunting lodge, now the Lodge at Coto de Caza, and the community was completed in 2003. Coto de Caza also includes Los Ranchos Estates, a 355-acre rural community of 75 large custom homes. Los Ranchos Estates is a separate private community behind the gates of Coto de Caza and has its own homeowner's association.

On August 23, 2023, a mass shooting occurred at the Cook's Corner bar in Trabuco Canyon, California, United States. Three people were killed and six others wounded before the gunman, 59-year-old ex-Ventura police officer John Snowling, was shot and killed by responding police officers.