LOS ANGELES — These are the places seared into the memories of local residents, the places many people who just come to visit never see. Now, after the fires that ripped through Southern California this month, they are unrecognizable, or unimaginable, as the spots where nature brought joy, peace or relief.

The wildfires in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties were nowhere near as deadly as those in the north. But just as they destroyed homes, they also brought a different kind of devastation, ravaging many of the region’s most prized outdoor recreation areas.

Almost all of the federal land within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area — a staggering 88 percent, totaling some 20,000 acres — was burned by the Woolsey Fire, according to the National Park Service.

Among the blackened and charred are the Old West film sets at the Paramount Ranch, which have been featured in movies and television shows for decades. The 155-year-old Diego Sepúlveda Adobe, a mission station that was still being restored from damage suffered in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, is now “just a shell,” in the words of one archaeologist.