Saugus unincorporated, CA

Saugus is best known as a Santa Clarita neighborhood, but a narrow strip carrying the same name lies outside the city along the lower canyons to the north, under Los Angeles County rather than city government. A manufactured-home community fronts Bouquet Canyon Road, and around it are houses on bigger lots, some with corrals, where hillside begins at the back fence. The city's planned tracts end at a clear line, and within a block or two the curbs and cul-de-sacs give way to canyon road. Open land does the job a neighborhood park would. Haskell Canyon Open Space, a large city-owned preserve kept free of development, holds oak woodland, meadows and an archery range at its north end. Farther up Bouquet Canyon, the road passes Bouquet Falls, a short stop beside the creek, before it climbs into Angeles National Forest. A week here mostly happens in the city. The shopping centers along Bouquet Canyon Road cover groceries, coffee and dinner, while Copper Hill Drive offers a fast crossing west to Valencia. For a meal with a drive attached, the barbecue at Green Valley SmokeHouse waits near the top of the canyons with smoked meats and house-made sides. The tradeoff is that nothing is within walking distance. Even a carton of milk requires the car, and the canyon lots are spread too far apart for an evening stroll to reach anything but more hillside. What unincorporated Saugus offers instead is oak country past the driveway and a full supermarket a short drive away.