Lake Manor, CA

Nearly every trip to or from Lake Manor begins on Valley Circle Boulevard, the road that curls around the western rim of Chatsworth before the Simi Hills take over. Near the bottom, homes sit on hillside lots of every shape, fitted around boulders and old oaks, with long driveways and views east over the valley floor. Higher on Woolsey Canyon Road the lots get more exposed, and a mobile home community looks out across the whole basin. The land around town is the attraction. Farther south along Valley Circle, the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve covers thousands of acres of grass and oak woodland that riders and mountain bikers share with hikers. There are no restaurants or stores in Lake Manor, so dinner and a coffee run mean driving down into Chatsworth or south to West Hills, both of which have full grocery stores and strip-mall restaurants. The 118 freeway and the Chatsworth train station, with Metrolink and Amtrak service, are the nearest connections to everywhere else. The main tradeoff is how much depends on a couple of canyon roads. Brush season brings red flag warnings and evacuation plans, since the 2018 Woolsey Fire began just up the hill, and on a bad fire day there are few routes down. People who stay here tend to talk about the quiet. Up on these slopes the valley noise flattens into a hum, and the evening light turns the sandstone orange a few minutes before it reaches the streets below.