Claremont unincorporated, CA

Look north from almost any street in the college town and the brushy slopes on the skyline belong to unincorporated Claremont. Beyond the city limits, the Los Angeles County land here is steep, largely roadless foothill country climbing from the top of the city toward the San Gabriel peaks. Palmer Canyon once held a small gated enclave of houses. The Grand Prix Fire swept through in 2003, and the costs of rebuilding under county rules kept most owners from coming back. Since then the land has mostly gone back to native scrub, and there is no real housing stock left to speak of. People who want to be near these hills live just below them, on the northern streets of the city, where larger houses sit on land that grew citrus before the tracts came in. Claremont Hills Wilderness Park is how most people get into this country. Its loop trail climbs from the edge of town into the foothills, with views across the valley and, on clear days, out toward the coast. For everything else, the Village is the destination. Village Grille plays the 1950s diner for breakfast, and Claremont Craft Ales on the north side of the city shares an address with Ironbark Ciderworks, a short drive down from the trailheads. Living in unincorporated Claremont is not really an option, and the land is not a park in the usual sense either. For the streets at the top of town, it works as a permanent, unbuilt edge between the last houses and the mountains.