Archive for the ‘Hikes’ Category
Secret Stairs of Los Angeles
I’ve been meaning to post about Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles by Charles Fleming for a while. We gave the book, which contains 42 stairway walks in Los Angeles, to a client/avid hiker as part of a closing gift, and ever since I’ve been meaning to pick up a copy for myself and write about it too. I love the hidden stairs tucked around Silver Lake. They seem so magical and Alice in Wonderland-y. I frequently use them on my runs and on walks with our dog Ebbie, since he’s really fond of going “up-up” whenever possible.
Via Secret Stairs-LA:
The staircases lace the hillsides of certain L.A. neighborhoods, and are historical reminders of a time when this was not a city of cars. City planners and developers installed them as direct routes for pedestrians–housewives and children particularly–to get down the hills to school, the supermarket, and transit lines. The city at that time was well served by trolleys, streetcars, buses, and light-rail systems. The staircases were clustered around steep hillside communities near these transit lines, especially steep-streeted communities that developed in the 1920s… The staircase-to-trolley system was so much a part of the landscape that developers in some areas built houses that had no other access to the outside world… The trolleys and streetcars are gone, but the staircases remain. Many of them are forgotten paths, neglected and unused. Many of them are also direct routes into fascinating Los Angeles neighborhoods that many Angelinos have never even seen.
Yesterday I stumbled upon the blog Climbing LA inspired by Secret Stairs. The author Robert Guerrero and partner Charles Thompson (of the sustainable food blog 100 Miles) hiked all 42 walks in Fleming’s book and wrote about it. What a cool concept for a blog! Sadly, the final hike was April 4th, but it is fascinating to go through the archives, read about their hikes, and check out what they saw along the way. It’s also a great source of inspiration for your own Secret Stairs hikes. I was particularly excited to see Walk #25: Swan’s Way, which I do almost every day with Ebbie.
You can purchase Secret Stairs here.
Temescal Gateway Park In Pacific Palisades
Temescal Gateway Park is one of the most popular parks in the Santa Monica Mountains. It encompasses 141 acres of oak and sycamore canyons, a waterfall, ridgetop views, and access to miles of trails in Topanga State Park, Will Rogers State Historic Park, and the 20,000-acre “Big Wild.”
There are a number of trails, including a loop trail that’s good for both beginner and intermediate hikers. It’s about 3 to 4 miles long and takes about 2-2.5 hours to complete. To make the hike a bit less steep, take the Temescal Canyon Trail to the top, which is the more eastern trail to your right as you approach the trails. To do the steeper climb to the top, take the Temescal Ridge Trail to the top. At the intersection of Temescal Ridge Trail and Temescal Canyon Trail, you can either take a half mile side trip to Skull Rock (staying on the ridge trail) or head down into the Temescal Canyon. At the bottom of the canyon, you cross a bridge with a beautiful waterfall and then the trail drops through the canyon at a mild pace, through a dense wooded area. Read more…
Hike To The Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign may seem far away and unreachable, but the truth is you can hike up to this L.A. landmark. Here’s how:
- Go to this address: 3399 Deronda Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068.
- You will see a white wall in the cul-de-sac connected to a gate that says “No Trespassing.”
- (…trespass…)
- Take the hike up “Mulholland Highway” and then a left on “Mt Lee Dr.”
- Eventually you will get to a fence that looks like this:
- If you really want to get close to the fence you can climb through a hole in the dirt that people have dug to get to the sign.
“The sign is much like the moon. It seems close enough at times to reach out and touch, and many try to bike or drive up there, but it always seems to be out of reach. In fact, it was not designed to be reached, only seen. When it was constructed in 1923, it read Hollywoodland. It was an advertisement for a then-opulent subdivision owned in part by move-making mogul Mack Sennet.” (from the book “Short Bike Rides Los Angeles” by Robert Winning)
For more info on the Hollywood Sign click here.
Happy Hiking!
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