Santa Clarita Valley in Southern California is a region of Los Angeles County just to the north of Los Angeles proper.

Cities

Map of Santa Clarita Valley

• Agua Dulce
• 1 Castaic — A suburban community at the northern end of the valley, home to recreational Castaic Lake.
• 2 Santa Clarita — The primary city of the valley, home to most of its dining and lodging options as well as the shopping of the upscale Valencia Town Center mall.
• Stevenson Ranch
• 3 Valencia — A district of Santa Clarita home to Six Flags Magic Mountain, orange groves, and the CalArts university.

Other destinations

• 1 Angeles National Forest
• 2 Six Flags Magic Mountain — By far the most well-known attraction in the Santa Clarita Valley, famed for its numerous roller coasters which are among the tallest and fastest in the world.
• Vasquez Rocks — A unique rock formation outside Agua Dulce where many movies and television shows have been filmed, including The Flintstones, 24, and several episodes of the original Star Trek television series.

Understand

The Santa Clarita Valley rests between the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) and the Antelope Valley Freeway (State Hwy 14), with new growth swelling beyond these borders. The valley is home to a lot of modern suburban development amidst some fairly rural landscape, enough so that the valley's farmland and surrounding hills have frequently stood in for rural and Old West locations in Hollywood films. The hills above the valley are wild enough to be home to bears, mountain lions, coyotes and other wild animals. The Pacific Crest Trail runs right through the Santa Clarita Valley.

Get in

The closest major airport is located in Burbank, south of the Santa Clarita Valley in the San Fernando Valley, with the more distant LAX serving as a major international hub.

Interstate 5 is the primary route in and out, traversing the length of the valley from Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley to the south and continuing north through The Grapevine and on into the San Joaquin Valley. CA-14, the Antelope Valley Freeway, traverses the Soledad Pass between Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley to the east.

The Metrolink Antelope Valley Line passes through the Santa Clarita Valley on its way to the Antelope Valley, making three stops in Santa Clarita (Newhall, Santa Clarita, and Via Princessa) and offering a direct rail connection to Burbank, Glendale, and Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles. The service is geared towards weekday commuters, although there is some evening and weekend service.

Get around

Driving is the primary means of getting around, seeing as this is a very suburban and rural region. Santa Clarita Transit offers a limited degree of public transit around the developed portion of the valley, with several routes spurring out of the McBean Regional Transit Center at Valencia Blvd and McBean Parkway, across from the Valencia Town Center. Routes 5/6 and 4/14 link the transit center to the Newhall Metrolink station, while Routes 3/7 link the transit center to Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Go next

• The San Fernando Valley lies to the south and is famed as the home of many of the largest Hollywood film studios, including Disney, Warner Brothers, and Universal with its associated Universal Studios theme park.
• The arid landscape of the Antelope Valley lies to the northeast on the other side of the mountains, via CA-14.