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Santa rosa hill canyon camarillo ca
Hill Canyon is a gorge in northernmost Newbury Park, California, which separates the Conejo Grade in the west from the Mount Clef Ridge to the east. It follows Conejo Valley’s longest creek, the Arroyo Conejo, and is located in an area locally known as the Barranca (La Branca) or La Barranca (Spanish for canyon). It is a deeply eroded canyon at the foothills of dramatic ridgelines and volcanic outcroppings on the Mount Clef Ridge. Hill Canyon is part of the Conejo Canyons Open Space, which is owned and operated by the Conejo Open Space Foundation (COSF). Hill Canyon is immediately north of the Arroyo Conejo Open Space in Newbury Park, CA, and immediately south of Santa Rosa County Park in Santa Rosa Valley, CA. The canyon is situated east of the Conejo Grade in Camarillo, CA, and is immediately west of the Mount Clef Ridge of Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, CA. Hiking trails and bridges connects these cities from trailheads found for instance in Wildwood Regional Park, Rancho Conejo Playfields and Santa Rosa County Park. Hill Canyon Trail is the primary trail and connects to the Hawk Canyon Trail, Western Plateau Trail, Arroyo Conejo Trail, Lynnmere Trail, and the Canyon Overlook Trail, which climbs to the top of the Mount Clef Ridge from Santa Rosa Valley.
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The only developed area in Hill Canyon is the Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant (HCTP), which takes up about sixty acres and includes the largest bodies of water in Newbury Park. It has a capacity of 14,000,000 gallons per day, and approximately 3.7 billion gallons of water are conveyed here every year for processing. Thousands of gallons in sewage spills have led to leaks into the adjacent Conejo Creek, which discharges at its estuary in Mugu Lagoon.
The Conejo Canyons make up a total of 1,628 acres when combined together. The flora includes live oak- and riparian woodlands, coastal sage scrub, as well as interior sage scrub and chaparral. From nearby peaks there are panoramic views as far as the Pacific Ocean, Ventura, and the Topatopa Mountains. The trails here are used for horseback-riding, mountain biking, running and hiking.