Santa Rosa Valley, California

The Santa Rosa Valley is a small valley and rural unincorporated community in Ventura County, Southern California.The valley is about 5 miles (8.0 km) long (east to west) and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide (north to south). Although not within its city limits, the community is sometimes considered to be an outlying neighborhood of Camarillo. There is an elementary school within the valley, Santa Rosa Technology Magnet School, which is part of the PVSD district. It is bordered on the south by the western Simi Hills and Wildwood Regional Park, and on the north by Las Posas Hills. The valley is drained principally by the Arroyo Santa Rosa, a tributary of Calleguas Creek which flows into the Pacific Ocean at Mugu Lagoon.

Mount Clef Ridge is a 1,076 ft volcanic mountain in Thousand Oaks, California. It is a volcanic outcrop that resulted from lava eruptions 30 million years ago. The ridge was formerly under ownership by the Janss Corporation, but was acquired by the Conejo Recreation and Park District (CRPD) in 1967. Trails here are available from Santa Rosa Valley, Newbury Park and Wildwood Regional Park. Although being a major feature of Wildwood, it occupies its own open-space area bordering Wildwood's northern boundaries. Mount Clef Ridge Open Space Area occupies 212 acres. From the ridge are great panoramic views of Santa Rosa Valley, Conejo Valley, Hill Canyon, as well as the Santa Susana-, Santa Monica- and Topatopa Mountains. The open-space area is home to plants such as coastal sage scrub, chaparral, Lyon's pentachaeta and Conejo dudleya. The fauna includes mountain lions, deer, coyotes, gray foxes, and more.Mount Clef Ridge was featured in the film Flaming Star (1960) starring Elvis Presley. The horse training scenes in Dark Victory (1939) starring Ronald Reagan also features sequences by the ridge. An army was storming off Mount Clef Ridge in the film Spartacus (1960). The ridge was also featured in Wuthering Heights (1939), where the ridge dubbed for Peniston Crag, England.A rock shelter, known as Wildflower Cave (Ven-486), is located here and was utilized for shelter by the Chumash people in pre-colonial times.The ridge is named in honor of the California Lutheran Education Foundation (CLEF), which worked to establish California Lutheran University in the 1950s.The ridgeline extends from the Norwegian Grade westwards to Wildwood Regional Park. A rock formation that spells out "CLU" can be found atop Mount Clef on the campus of California Lutheran University, and a 30-foot cross is located just east of the landmark letters. The cross was made from old telephone poles. This part of the ridge, Dr. Rudy Edmund Living Laboratory, was dedicated on May 5, 2003, in order to enhance student research in biology and geology at the university. Ecological field studies also take place here. The area's namesake, CLU professor Rudy Edmund, published extensively on the need to preserve Mount Clef Ridge.

Moorpark High School is a comprehensive public secondary school located in the Mountain Meadows neighborhood of Moorpark, Ventura County, California, and serves students from grades 9 through 12. It is part of the Moorpark Unified School District; and had an enrollment of 1,908 students for the 2018–19 school year. The student/teacher ratio for 2017–18 was 23:1. Moorpark High School is accredited through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Moorpark High School takes pupils from two main feeder middle schools: Chaparral Middle School and Mesa Verde Middle School.

Wildwood Regional Park is a suburban regional park in the western Simi Hills and Conejo Valley, in Ventura County, California. It is located in western Thousand Oaks, northern Newbury Park, and southern Moorpark. Wildwood is home to over 27 miles of hiking trails. The four principle trails are the Mesa-, Moonridge-, Wildwood Canyon- and Santa Rosa Trails. Over 250 plant species have been recorded in Wildwood, as well as 37 species of mammals, 70 bird species, and 22 species of amphibians and reptiles.The park consists of 1,765 acres (7.14 km2), and is connected to adjacent open-space areas comprising an additional 1,400 acres (5.7 km2). The park is operated by the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency (COSCA).

The Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center is a 2,411 seat multi-purpose indoor arena on the campus of California Lutheran University, located in Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, California. It is 96,000 sq. ft.It houses two gymnasiums, including the main 1,500-seat gym, the Lundring Events Center, classrooms and labs, Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame, a sports medicine facility, a fitness center, the CLU Alumni Association Athletic Hall of Fame, and offices for staff, faculty, and coaches.It is the college's fitness center and hosts its indoor sports activities, as well as local-regional sporting events and music concerts. It is named after its main donor, John "Jack" Gilbert and his wife Carol.

California Lutheran University (CLU, Cal Lutheran, or Cal Lu) is a private university in Thousand Oaks, California. It was founded in 1959 and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but is nonsectarian. It opened in 1960 as California Lutheran College and was California's first four-year liberal arts college and the first four-year private college in Ventura County. It changed its name to California Lutheran University on January 1, 1986.It is located on a 290-acre (120 ha) campus, 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Los Angeles. It offers degrees at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels, as well as post-master's and post-bachelor's certificates. CLU offers 36 majors and 34 minors. The university is based in Thousand Oaks, with additional locations in Woodland Hills (Los Angeles), Westlake Village, Oxnard, Santa Maria, and Berkeley. Cal Lutheran has been called the West Coast's "Cradle of Coaches"; nearly 1 in 4 of football coach Bob Shoup's players would go on to coach at some level, while 144 players have become football coaches, and several have been drafted to the NFL. Particularly many players were drafted following the NAIA Championship win in 1971. The celebration was held at the Hollywood Palladium in conjunction with the Dallas Cowboys that won their first Super Bowl the following month. In college baseball, 24 student players have been drafted for Major League Baseball as of 2014.

Hill Canyon is a deep canyon in the western Simi Hills and within northern Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks, in Ventura County, southern California. The Arroyo Conejo Nature Preserve includes the central canyon area, and is part of the Conejo Canyons Open Space. It has trails connecting it to Santa Rosa Valley County Park at the canyon's mouth, to Wildwood Regional Park east of the canyon, and to Rancho Conejo Playfields southwest of the canyon.

Arroyo Conejo (Spanish for “Rabbit Creek”) carries part of the longest creek in the Conejo Valley which sprawls past the cities of Thousand Oaks and Camarillo, and the communities of Newbury Park, Casa Conejo and Santa Rosa Valley. Arroyo Conejo is the primary drainage for the City of Thousand Oaks. Its watershed covers 57 square miles (150 km2) of which 43 square miles (110 km2) are in the Conejo Valley and 14 square miles (36 km2) in the Santa Rosa Valley. Historically, it was a seasonal-running creek but urban runoff from irrigation currently makes it perennial. Its north fork carved Wildwood Canyon out of bedrock over several millennia. The south fork originates in the Conejo Hills above Newbury Park. It also follows Thousand Oaks Boulevard, where it runs directly along and below the boulevard. In certain areas, the creek runs through concrete culverts and runs underneath the street. Past Newbury Park's Hill Canyon, the creek meets with Arroyo Santa Rosa in Santa Rosa Valley as it runs through the Pleasant Valley basin on its way across the Oxnard Plain to its estuary at Mugu Lagoon. Due to limited access, suggestions have been made to make its banks into public amenities similar to that of San Antonio River Walk, or, developing a public use trail following the creek, similar to the bike path of Arroyo Simi in Simi Valley, California. It is part of the Calleguas Creek watershed, which drains an area of 343 sq. mi. in southern Ventura County. Within Wildwood Regional Park, its gorge and its 40-foot (12 m) cascade, Paradise Falls, are among the park’s most visited attractions.

The Arroyo Simi (Spanish for "Small Stream of Simi", sometimes also referred to as Simi Creek) is a 19-mile (31 km) westwards-running creek, located in California, United States, running from the city of Simi Valley and crosses the valley from east to west, before entering the city of Moorpark. It originates at Corriganville Park by the Santa Susana Pass, travels for 12 miles (19 km) through Simi Valley, leaves the city limits of Oak Park at the western end of Simi Valley, continues for seven miles in Moorpark where it merges with Arroyo Las Posas by Hitch Road. It is a tributary to the Calleguas Creek, which enters the Pacific Ocean by its estuary at Mugu Lagoon by Naval Air Station Point Mugu. Arroyo Simi drains an area of 343 square miles in southern Ventura County. In its natural state, it is an ephemeral creek, which is only seasonally filled during winter time and periods of heavy rain. Today it is for the most part a concrete lined water drain that flows year round. Tributaries to the Arroyo Simi include the Alamos, Sycamore, Dry, Tapo, Las Llajas, White Oak, Runkle, and Bus Canyon Creeks, as well as the Erringer Road and North Simi Drains. Arroyo Simi Greenway is an ongoing construction project by the City of Simi Valley to increase the recreational use of its river parkways. The project includes new paved hiking and biking trails along the Arroyo Simi, exhibit signs, sixteen new trail entries, and more. The area is administered as the Arroyo Simi Bike Path by the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District (RSRPD). It is home to native flora, fish, and birds. It is home to fish species such as the brown bullhead, green sunfish, bluntnose minnow, and mosquitofish. It is an important habitat for various species of freshwater-nesting birds in the Simi Valley. Some of the species include the great blue heron, white-faced ibis, black-crowned night heron, green heron, black-necked stilt, great egret, snowy egret, belted kingfisher, black phoebe, killdeer, common yellowthroat, greater yellowlegs, American coot, and mallard.

Pederson House and Water Tower is located at the campus of California Lutheran University (CLU) in Thousand Oaks, California, the former home of the Norwegian Colony. It was built by members of the Colony that settled here in 1890. The structure is designated Ventura County Historic Landmark No. 45 and Thousand Oaks Historical Landmark No. 3. It is a typical turn-of-the-century farmhouse constructed in 1913-14 for Lars and Karn Pederson, Norwegian immigrants and members of the Norwegian Colony, who had first settled in Conejo Valley in 1890. The house was erected at the present location of Ahmanson Science Center, but was later relocated 500 feet (150 m) to its current location at the corner of Regent Avenue and Faculty Street. When its original location was determined to become a science building, the university was quoted $125,000 in moving costs, and therefore planned to demolish the house. However, CLU alumni were able to raise the amount in one day and were successful in saving the house.One hundred and thirty acres (53 ha) of the Pedersons' land were donated by Lars Pederson’s son, Richard Pederson, in order to establish California Lutheran College in 1959. Additional land including the buildings were given to the university in 1967, at which time the buildings were restored. While currently housing the university’s music department, the ranch house has also been utilized as the university president's home in 1961 and as the dean's office in 1962-63. It had been the private residence of the Pederson family from its 1913 construction until 1960. The water tower was operational until 1960, when plumbing was installed. It was relocated and renovated in 1986.A bronze statue of Lars Pederson was dedicated on April 18, 2015, next to the flagpoles near the university's Soiland Humanities Center. Nearby Pederson Road is also named for the Pederson family.

The Conejo Canyons Open Space consists of 1,628 acres (659 ha) of open-space areas in northernmost Newbury Park, Ventura County, California. It consists of deeply eroded canyons, numerous ridgelines and plateaus in the northwestern portion of the Conejo Valley. The area consists of diverse natural features such as deep canyons with perennial streams, prominent ridgelines, volcanic mountains, and a variety of natural habitats. While some of the flora includes chaparral, riparian habitats, oak woodlands and coastal sage, fauna includes mountain lions, coyotes, mule deer, and bobcats.

The Norwegian Grade is a 2 miles (3.2 km) section of Moorpark Road from the Santa Rosa Valley up into the Simi Hills and the city of Thousand Oaks, within Ventura County, California. Completed in 1911, it may be one of the Norwegian Colony's most notable contributions to the city. Until the construction of California State Route 23 Freeway, this was the most direct route between Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.After several mishaps while hauling crops down the Potrero- and Conejo Grades, men of the Norwegian Colony decided to construct a new route. Nils Olsen donated the land in 1911, land which lies immediately west of present-day California Lutheran University. Over a two-year period, the extension of Moorpark Road was completed. Tour of California bicycle riders climbed the grade in February 2006 near the end of the seven-day bicycle race.On the right side of the grade is the McCrea Wildlife Refuge, donated by actor Joel McCrea in 1981. At the bottom of the grade is the intersection of Moorpark- and Santa Rosa Roads, where one can continue north into City of Moorpark, or turn west and follow Santa Rosa Road into City of Camarillo.