Relatively small in size among California's counties at 789 square miles, Orange County supports one of the nation's largest county populations: three million. Yet this county is surprisingly rich in its diversity of natural elements. Bounded all around by a spectacular seacoast and rambling hills, it contains a portion of Cleveland National Forest, including two mile-high mountain peaks. Orange County has numerous canyons, dramatic in looks and legend, as well as the Santa Ana River with its seasonal branching tributaries. Yet extensive acreage within this forward-looking county is being...

For two centuries before it was sculpted into a modern marina, the curve of the Pacific coast that is now Dana Point Harbor was a natural anchorage within Capistrano Bay for winddependent trading ships. Boston sailor Richard Henry Dana arrived on one and later described the site as "the only romantic spot in California" in his 1840 classic, Two Years Before the Mast. Situated halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles, Dana Point's rugged coves attracted mainly fishermen and surfers. Then in the 1920s, the marine terraces above the surf were carved into streets, but the community's development...