Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County covers the broad coastal basin and surrounding mountains in southern California, holding the city of Los Angeles and the dense ring of communities that grew up around it. The county spans roughly 4,750 square miles — from the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriels in the north, across the LA basin and Long Beach harbor, out to the desert edge at the Antelope Valley. Anchor cities include Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale, Hollywood, and Malibu, with the San Fernando Valley extending north and the South Bay communities along the coast. Catalina Island sits 22 miles offshore. Griffith Park, the Angeles National Forest, and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area cover the major public lands. Most travel concentrates on a few districts. Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the Sunset Strip carry the entertainment-industry tourism; the museums cluster in the LACMA-Getty-Norton Simon-Huntington corridor; the beaches run from Malibu through Santa Monica and Venice down to Manhattan, Hermosa, and Long Beach. Universal Studios and the Walt Disney Concert Hall are common multi-day anchors. Traffic shapes everything.