Northern boundary of SoCal, several varying regional opinions

California counties below the sixth
standard parallel

The famous
Andaz West Hollywood Hotel on the
Sunset Strip
There is a definition coinciding neatly with county lines using the sixth
standard parallel south
[8] of
Mount Diablo (144 miles south of Mt. Diablo at 35°47′28″N) which forms the northern borders of
San Luis Obispo,
Kern, and
San Bernardino counties as the boundary. However, counties commonly thought of as making up Southern California are solely (by this rational) Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego and the coastal (metro cities) of Santa Barbara area, excluding the northern half of that county. The entire county of Santa Barbara, & San Luis Obispo, south of the
Santa Lucia Mountains-101 Cuesta Grade, and the eastern Kern and southernmost Inyo County, in the
Mojave Desert are also often included in an alternate view. Central California, as a third distinct
Central Coast region, extending (up through northmost Monterey County). Western Kern County is in the
San Joaquin Valley—southern
Central Valley region, therefore it and northern San Luis Obispo, while below the sixth standard parallel, are not generally self-identified or locally considered to be part of southern California, but rather as being in either in the "Central Valley" or the picturesque "Central Coast", which also contains the dry "oak lands" of the state's "coast range".[
citation needed] The state is most commonly divided & promoted by it's regional tourism groups as consisting of northern, central, and southern California regions. The two great AAA Auto Clubs, of the state, choose to simplify matters by dividing the state along the lines where their jurisdiction for membership apply, as either Northern or Southern California, in contrast to the 3 region point of view. Another influence, is the geographical phrase "South of the Tahachapies" which would split the southern region off at the crest of that transverse range, but in that definition, the desert portions of north Los Angeles County and eastern Kern and San Bernardino Counties would be included in the Southern California region, due to their remoteness from the central valley, and interior desert landscape.