Overview
About El Toro
El Toro is the northern end of Laguna Canyon, the ground either side of Laguna Canyon Road up toward the El Toro Road intersection, on Sun Valley Drive and a handful of canyon addresses. The city draws it as evacuation zone 11 and records 100 households inside it. It is the second largest of the twenty-two named areas at 869 acres and by far the emptiest: the assessor counts 95 parcels on four named streets, roughly one parcel for every nine acres, and no subdivision map has ever been recorded over any of it.
Five hundred and fifty-five acres inside the boundary are open space preserve and 520 acres belong to the two county wilderness parks, 365 to Laguna Coast and 155 to Aliso and Wood Canyons. The city maintains 1.88 miles of trail here across twenty-nine public segments, and a further 0.76 miles of wilderness park trail runs inside the line. The city animal shelter stands at 20612 Laguna Canyon Road. Laguna Beach Unified serves the canyon from four campuses and 2,291 students.
View available homes in El ToroHistory
How El Toro was built
The name came over the hill. El Toro is Spanish for the bull, and it was in use by 1863 for the inland settlement that grew on Rancho Cañada de los Alisos, granted to José Antonio Serrano in 1842. Dwight Whiting bought most of the rancho in 1884, brought the Santa Fe line through, and planted about four hundred acres of eucalyptus in the early 1900s as a lumber venture meant to attract settlement. El Toro Road was the way from that country down to the sea, and the junction where it meets Laguna Canyon Road has anchored this end of the city ever since.
In 1883 a chapel schoolhouse was built in the canyon, and in the 1890s it was moved down to Canyon Acres to serve as Laguna Elementary. Until Coast Highway opened in 1926, the canyon road past this point was the main route into Laguna Beach, and the town it led to was still a village of 363 people in 1920.
By the Numbers
El Toro by the numbers
Lifestyle
The El Toro lifestyle
Laguna Beach occupies 8.84 square miles with a population of about 23,000 and roughly six million visitors a year on the city's own count, and provides its own police, fire and marine safety protection.
Beaches north of Aliso Creek close between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.; beaches south of the creek close between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.; Thousand Steps Beach closes between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The city permits surfing at Agate, Brooks, Rockpile and Thalia Street beaches. Smoking fines on city beaches, parks and trails run $100, then $200, then $500 within twelve months.
Schools
Schools serving El Toro
Laguna Beach Unified serves El Toro along with the rest of the city, from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Attendance is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current assignment for a specific address with the district before relying on it.
K-5 · 404 students
K-5 · 536 students
6-8 · 524 students
9-12 · 815 students
FAQs
Common questions about El Toro
What is the El Toro area?
The northern end of Laguna Canyon, the ground either side of Laguna Canyon Road running up toward the El Toro Road intersection. The city draws it as evacuation zone 11 and records 100 households inside it. At 869 acres it is the second largest of the twenty-two named areas and the emptiest, with 95 parcels on four named streets, roughly one parcel for every nine acres.
Which schools serve the El Toro area?
Laguna Beach Unified serves the whole city from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Elementary assignment is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current one for a specific address with the district office.
How much of it is parkland?
Most of it. Five hundred and fifty-five of the 869 acres are open space preserve and 520 acres belong to the two county wilderness parks, 365 to Laguna Coast and 155 to Aliso and Wood Canyons. The city maintains 1.88 miles of trail inside the boundary across twenty-nine public segments, with a further 0.76 miles of wilderness park trail.
Has this ground ever been subdivided?
No. No subdivision map has been recorded over any part of the boundary, the only one of the twenty-two named areas of which that is true. Parcels are held under older survey descriptions filed under the Irvine subdivision and Rancho Niguel, and the assessor dates only thirty-eight structures inside the line.
What happened here historically?
The canyon was the city's route out. A stagecoach line ran through Laguna Canyon to meet the railroad at El Toro in 1888, and the Mormon school house that became the Laguna Beach grammar school was first put up near the corner of El Toro Road and Laguna Canyon Road. In 1970 a free open-air rock concert called the Christmas Happening drew tens of thousands to the canyon by El Toro Road and lasted several days.