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Santa Monica Mountains

Southern California, known for being a geographic region, as well as a cultural one. In general, it is made up of the many countries, along with coming in second as being the most populated urban communities within the United States. This region has been describe as being based on its economics and demographics having a total combination of eight different counties. It is the coastal mountain range which consists of the Santa Monica Mountains. Since it is so close to the densely populated region it has become another natural area in the state to be visited the most. This mountain range is also the home of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Beginning with the Hollywood Hills, it extends around 40 miles (64 km) from east to west between L.A. and Point Mugu, Ventura County. This makes the width extremely large. Then there are the western mountains that is dividing Malibu and Conejo Valley, and ends suddenly when it reaches Mugu Peak while the shoreline is nearly impossible to pass and rugged, is giving in to the coastal sand dunes and the tidal lagoons in the alluvial Oxnard Plains. A barrier has been formed by the eastern mountains which falls between the L.A. Basin through San Fernando Valley, separating it from the central west and northern regions of Los Angeles from the southern regions. These mountains run parallel of the Santa Susana Mountains that are directly to the north of the mountains that run across the San Fernando Valley.

It is thought by the geologists that the Northern Channel Islands are a westward type of extension that makes it reach the Pacific Ocean. The range and sedimentary rock filled with complex layers were both created from episodes of lifting up and submergence being repeated again and again. The volcanic intrusions of Sandstone Peak were left exposed. While Malibu Creek was eroding a channel of its own during the time the mountains were being gradually uplifted.

The mountains are dry in the summer, along with coastal fog fairly often at the ocean side to the south of the range, and it is wet and cooler during the winter, which is the reason for the range being prone to having wildfires, more so during the wind events of Santa Ana. It is rare to get snow in these mountains, which is because they are much lower in elevation than its neighbor the San Gabriel Mountains. The last large amount of snow there was back in 2007, and that snow was the first measurable snow for five decades. The Santa Monica Mountains contains more than twenty separate state and municipal parks. Running from Cahuenga Pass all the way to Woodland Hills is Mulholland Drive. There are several minor passes running between Sepulveda and Cahuenga, but the main one for the north-south to go west is the Sepulveda Pass.