Coming up Chapman Avenue, right before it crosses Crawford Canyon Road and exits the incorporated part of Orange.
The building on top of the hill is the Orange Hills Restaurant, locally renowned for a rather incredible view of the basin. On a clear day, one can see out to the Santa Monica pier - about 45 miles due west of that point.
Now on Santiago Canyon Road.
The mountain in the background is Saddleback Mountain, and on there is Santiago Peak, the highest point in Orange County - something like 5,700 feet above sea level.
A vista point placed along the road.
Before it burned, this area was actually quite green at the right time of year, though it had an annoying habit of turning brown during the summer from lack of rainfall. So that it's now black, here, is semi-expected.
A little feature I call "the tunnel".
Here, there's about ten feet of clearance overhead, if not slightly more, and at the right time of day, it can look like night going through here.
These leaves are, indeed, just starting to turn. Yes, this is in December, on Christmas Eve.
A little bit of information: it was in the mid 70s at this point, and probably warmer, owing to being in the canyons.
