Santa Ana Mountains

Santiago Peak is the southern mountain of the Saddleback landform in Orange County, California. It is the highest and most prominent peak of both the Santa Ana Mountains and Orange County; it also marks a border point with Riverside County. The peak is named for Santiago Creek, which begins on its southwestern slope. During most winters, snow falls at least once on the peak. A telecommunication antenna farm with microwave antennas sits atop the peak. The Acjachemen referred to the peak as Kalawpa, with the nearby village of Alume meaning "to raise the head in looking upward," in reference to the mountain.

KWVE-FM (107.9 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Clemente, California, and broadcasting to Orange County, the Inland Empire and Northern San Diego County. It airs a Christian talk and teaching radio format, known as "K-Wave". The station is owned by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, with its studios in the church-owned Logos Building on West MacArthur Boulevard in Santa Ana. KWVE-FM is a Class B FM station with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 530 watts. The transmitter is atop Santiago Peak in Rancho Santa Margarita. KWVE is simulcast on KWVE (1110 AM) within the Greater Los Angeles area; most KWVE programming is also heard on KSDW (88.9 FM) in Temecula.

Saddleback, sometimes called Old Saddleback or Saddleback Mountain, is a natural landmark formed by the two highest peaks of the Santa Ana Mountains and the gap between them. Resembling a saddle as viewed from most of Orange County, California, this landform dominates the county's eastern skyline. On the clearest days, Saddleback is visible from most of the Greater Los Angeles area. Santiago Peak is the highest peak in the range and the highest point in the county at 5,689 ft (1,734 m). Modjeska Peak is the second highest at 5,496 ft (1,675 m). The two peaks form part of the border between Orange and Riverside counties. The hilly landscape in south Orange County is known colloquially as Saddleback Valley, and hence many institutions are named after Saddleback, including Saddleback Church, Saddleback College, and the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. The presence of volcanic rocks in Silverado Canyon indicates that Saddleback Mountain was formed prior to the development of the San Andreas Fault, back when a subduction zone occurred where the Pacific Plate went under California.

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 0.6 mi (0.97 km) to the northwest. Modjeska lies within Cleveland National Forest and, despite being shorter than Santiago, has a smaller peak without manmade structures to obstruct views of the Pacific Ocean and San Gabriel Mountains. The peak is named after the Shakespearean actress Helena Modjeska, who lived in Modjeska Canyon (on the western foot of the mountain) near the end of her life.

Trabuco Canyon National Forest was established by the U.S. Forest Service in California on July 6, 1907 with 153,387 acres (620.74 km2) when the name was changed from Trabuco Cañon Forest Reserve and land was added. On July 1, 1908 the forest was combined with San Jacinto National Forest to create Cleveland National Forest and the name was discontinued.

The Holy Fire was a wildfire that burned in the Cleveland National Forest in Orange and Riverside Counties, California. The wildfire started on August 6, 2018 at around 1:15 PM PDT, in the vicinity of Trabuco Canyon. A suspected arsonist was booked into the Orange County jail in Santa Ana, California but found not guilty in 2023. The blaze burned 23,136 acres (94 km2) and destroyed 18 buildings, before it was fully contained on September 13, 2018. While the fire was actively spreading in early and mid-August, residents of the nearby cities of Corona, Temescal Valley, and Lake Elsinore were placed under evacuation orders.

The Holy Jim Volunteer Fire Department (HJVFD) is a group of firefighters in remote "Holy Jim Canyon" in the Cleveland National Forest in Orange County, California. The chief of the department is elected to the position by members of the community and department. The members of the fire department are certified and trained in basic life support and fighting wildfires. The department performs 2 to 3 rescues of lost hikers a year and maintains its own stationhouse, one fire engine, six 5,000 gallon water tanks, a mile of water lines in the canyon and maintains its own weather station gauge at the stationhouse.Orange Coast Magazine featured a four-page article on the firefighters in October 2008.The station house now has only one fire engine. The other engine, Gertrude, was donated to a museum.

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.

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.

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 3,980 feet (1,210 m) and flows north and west, past the town of Silverado to join Santiago Creek at 942 feet (287 m) after a journey of just under 5 miles (8.0 km). The main branch, Ladd Canyon, is just over 3 miles (4.8 km) long. Its stream arises on the east flank of Pleasants Peak at about 3,590 feet (1,090 m) and flows southwest into the main stem at about 1,178 feet (359 m) near Silverado. They are part of the Santa Ana River watershed. A hiking trail/fire road runs the entire length of the canyon.