page_title: Southern California
section_title: Natural landscape
hierarchical_section_title: Southern California / Natural landscape
caption_attribution_description: California black oaks (Quercus kelloggii) in Autumn, in the San Gabriel Mountains, Southern California.
context_page_description: Southern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southernmost counties of California, and is the second most populous urban agglomeration in the United States. The region contains ten counties: Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties. The Colorado Desert and the Colorado River are located on southern California's eastern border with Arizona, and the Mojave Desert is located north on California's Nevada border. Southern California's southern border is part of the Mexico–United States border.
context_section_description: Southern California consists of one of the more varied collections of geologic, topographic, and natural ecosystem landscapes in a diversity outnumbering other major regions in the state and country. The region spans from Pacific Ocean islands, shorelines, beaches, and coastal plains, through the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges with their peaks, and into the large and small interior valleys, to the vast deserts of California.
  Introductory categories include:
  Category: Beaches of southern California
  Category: Mountain ranges of Southern California
  Category: Rivers of Southern California
  Category: Deserts of California
  Category: Parks in Southern California
caption: Autumn of 2008 in southern California.
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