Laguna Niguel Lake

Laguna Niguel Regional Park is a public park in Laguna Niguel, in southern Orange County, California. Its main feature is Laguna Niguel Lake (also known as Sulphur Creek Reservoir), located within the park's boundaries. Laguna Niguel's 4th of July fireworks show is held at the park every year.

Sulphur Creek Dam is a dam across Sulphur Creek in Orange County, California. The dam creates Laguna Niguel Lake and is entirely within the city of Laguna Niguel. The reservoir is used for water reclamation storage and recreation, and is the main attraction of Laguna Niguel Regional Park, which surrounds it.

Sulphur Creek is a 4.5-mile (7.2 km) tributary of Aliso Creek in Orange County in the U.S. state of California. The creek drains about 6 square miles (16 km2) of residential communities and parks in the southern San Joaquin Hills. The Sulphur Creek watershed was once part of the territory of the semi-nomadic Acjachemen Native Americans, who were conquered by Spanish conquistadors in the 17th and 18th centuries and called the Juaneño after nearby Mission San Juan Capistrano. During the 19th century, the watershed became part of a rancho and was mostly agricultural and range land until the 1960s, when suburban residential development began in the watershed. Sulphur Creek Dam was built in 1966, forming Laguna Niguel Lake. Today, the Sulphur Creek drainage basin includes parts of Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, and San Juan Capistrano. The creek also flows through parts of Laguna Niguel Regional Park and Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park. Urban runoff has changed the once seasonal creek into a permanent stream. Most of the creek has been channelized to control flooding and prevent erosion, although some sections still include riparian habitat.

Rancho Niguel was a 13,316-acre (53.89 km2) Mexican land grant in the San Joaquin Hills, within present-day Orange County, California. It was granted in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Juan Avila. The rancho was named for a local Indian village called "Niguili." The grant extended along the Pacific coast from Laguna Canyon and Laguna Beach, past Aliso Creek to Dana Point and San Juan Creek. The rancho encompassed those present-day places and Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, and Laguna Hills.

Laguna Niguel () is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The name Laguna Niguel is derived from the words "Laguna" (Spanish for "lagoon") and "Niguili" (the name of a Native American village once located near Aliso Creek). As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,355. Laguna Niguel is located in the San Joaquin Hills in the southeastern corner of Orange County, close to the Pacific Ocean, and borders the cities of Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, and San Juan Capistrano. Laguna Niguel has its origins in the Rancho Niguel Mexican land grant, which was acquired in 1959 by the Laguna Niguel Corporation to develop one of California's first master-planned communities. As a predominantly residential city, Laguna Niguel serves as a bedroom community for the job centers of northern and central Orange County. Laguna Niguel has a median household income 31 percent above the Orange County average and nearly double the U.S. average. It is known for its mild coastal climate, low crime rate, and its numerous parks and public trails.

The Chet Holifield Federal Building, colloquially known as "the Ziggurat Building", is a United States government building in Laguna Niguel, California. It was built between 1968 and 1971 for North American Aviation/Rockwell International, and designed by William Pereira. Since 1974 it has been owned and managed by the General Services Administration. National Archives and Records Administration had holdings for the Pacific region stored here, but has since moved to another location. Primary tenants are now regional offices of the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service.

Aliso Niguel High School (ANHS), which is part of the Capistrano Unified School District, is located in the city of Aliso Viejo, California. Most of its students reside in the communities of Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel. The school is a California Distinguished School, a National Blue Ribbon School, and a New American High School. Aliso Niguel was ranked as number 252 in Newsweek's 2016 list of the top 500 high schools in the nation.

Soka University of America (SUA) is a private liberal arts college in Aliso Viejo, California. Originally founded in 1987, it was established on its current campus in 2001 by Daisaku Ikeda, the founder of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist movement. Though affiliated with Soka Gakkai, it maintains a secular curriculum which emphasizes pacifism, human rights, and the creative coexistence of nature and humanity.: 6 A much larger and older sister school, Sōka University in Japan, is located in Hachiōji, Tokyo. SUA encompasses both a four-year liberal arts college and a graduate school offering a Master's program in Educational Leadership and Societal Change. SUA also hosts the Pacific Basin Research Center and the newly created SUA Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Human Rights.

The Sheep Hills are a mountain range in Orange County, California.

Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo is a station on the Inland Empire–Orange County Line and Orange County Line of the Metrolink commuter rail system around Southern California. Originally built to serve Metrolink, the station became a stop for Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner in 2007 but is currently not used as a limited Amtrak stop on the Pacific Surfliner route. Total daily ridership for Metrolink and Amtrak was about 500 passengers in fiscal year 2009. Of the 73 California stations served by Amtrak, Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo was the 71st-busiest in FY2010, boarding or detraining an average of approximately seven passengers daily. Metrolink trains terminate here and if they do by noon time, one train set moves over to a nearby siding track until the rush hour.

Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park is a major regional park in the San Joaquin Hills of Orange County, California in the United States. Comprising 4,500 acres (1,800 ha) of rugged coastal canyons, open grassland, and riparian woodland, the park borders the suburban cities of Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel and lies within a portion of the ancestral homeland of the indigenous Acjachemen people.Aliso and Wood Canyons is part of a larger park complex known as the South Coast Wilderness. Surrounded by heavy suburban development and the Pacific Ocean, it is an important regional wildlife preserve. The park includes trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding; a greenbelt and bikeway along Aliso Creek; and various geological features such as caves, springs, and exposed marine fossil beds. The park is administered by the County of Orange under the OC Parks Department. The name Aliso originated in the 18th century when Spanish explorers named Aliso Creek, probably for the Alnus rhombifolia (white alder) tree native to the area. Wood Canyon was likely named for the groves of California live oak and sycamores that are found in the canyon. In 2021, the park was designated by the Old Growth Forest Network for its old live oak and sycamore trees.

Wood Canyon Creek is a 2.8 mi (4.5 km) perennial stream in Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, Orange County, California. A tributary of Aliso Creek, it drains a deep undeveloped valley to the west of Aliso Viejo. The Wood Canyon was populated by the Acjachemen tribe hundreds of years ago; many archaeological sites along the creek provide evidence of their habitation. Spanish explorers and colonists arrived in the mid-18th century, establishing missions and a rancho that extended around the Aliso Creek watershed. Wood Canyon was used first as a cattle grazing area; after California became part of the United States, it was used to graze sheep. From the 1960s onward, the creek's flow has been heavily affected by urban runoff from suburban residential development. The Wood Canyon watershed drains a portion of the San Joaquin Hills, a short coastal mountain range that uplifted beginning in the mid-Pleistocene (1.22 MYA).