Hiking Runyon Canyon

Runyon Canyon is a great 1.8- mile hike in Hollywood.

Parking is neighborhood streets. Most are 2-hour limits which is plenty of time to finish the hike unless you hike the extended 3.5-mile portion. I hiked the 1.8-mile loop (car door to car door) in an hour and fifteen minutes. Please read all parking signs as I have read parking enforcement is active in the area.

Usually it is a crowded trail, but on a Labor Day Saturday at 3 pm it was pretty empty.

There is one steep part on the 1.8-mile loop. See my stair portion of the video. You can avoid stairs and the steepest part of the loop if you take westside of the loop up and back. You can see the paved westside trail at the end of my video as I look across the canyon. (There is an extended 3.5-mile loop, but I have not hiked that one.)

Great activity after a movie or meal in Hollywood. Bring plenty of water as there is no shade on a sunny day.

Lost in Vasquez Rocks: A Los Angeles Hiking Experience

The amazing Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a wilderness area that you can spend ½ a day hiking the outside trails or spend an hour bouldering the iconic rocks at the center of the park. The park is only ½ hour north of Los Angeles just off the 14 freeway.

 

The remarkable geologic rock formations within the park are caused by the active Elkhorn Fault. Rocks soar over 100 feet out of the ground at 50-degree angles. The park’s iconic rocks have formed the back drop for dozens of films and TV shows from Star Trek to Blazing Saddles to Westworld.

 

Iconic rocks

The park is visitor friendly with free parking, a well-put-together interactive visitor center and marked hiking trails. Unlike many hikes where you must hike hours to arrive at a trail’s iconic photo spot, this park allows you to drive right up to it to take your pictures and hike afterwards. But being a dad and a scoutmaster, I made my wife and two sons complete the 6-mile loop around the park before exploring the 150-foot tall prize.

 

And of course, I got us lost.

 

Views of the rock uplift.

Our ill-fated hike started on a beautiful day: the sky was a beautiful cobalt blue and a cool breeze kept the high desert temperatures in the 70s. Walking along the Geology Trail, we wound through various boulders and desert shrubbery with signs describing them. The area also afforded some amazing views.

 

Then the trail descended behind a ridge of sandstone and sedimentary rocks momentarily blocking our view of the central rocks. Looking back up at the ridge that we had descended, it appeared as if we had walked down a massive rent in the earth.

 

We descended further into a beautiful rocky canyon and saw a boulder shaped like a guppy and another like a bantha from Star Wars.

Guppy Rock

 

I, being the faithful Instagrammer, was taking copious amounts of photos so my family soon left me behind. But have no fear, my wife and younger son responsibly waited for me at the Foot Trail turnoff that would take us back to the visitor center. My older son on the other hand was nowhere to be found.

 

He had missed the turnoff and continued on our current trail. We called his name but there was no answer. We hurried after him.  He was 16 and a Life Scout so I did not fear for his safety, I just didn’t want to do a lot of backtracking once we caught up to him.  Besides the park did not look that big on the visitor center map. But looks can be deceiving. I soon learned why Tiburcio Vasquez, a notorious bandit during the 19th century, was able to escape the law for so many years amongst these rocks and canyons.

 

Ten minutes on, the trail wrapped around a bend and it was here that we finally saw my son. He stood atop a ridge 100 yards beyond. He waved at us to follow him. My younger son urged us to go back. I looked at the map. It appeared that this trail would eventually merge with the Foot Trail, so I said we should follow my older son. I really didn’t want to back track.



Older son is dot on hill.

 

But soon, the trail narrowed to almost nothing, then widened into a definite trail again and then shrank back down again. After forty-five minutes on this rubber band trail, we found ourselves ducking under branches, avoiding rabbits on what had become nothing more than a game trail, and ended up in a farmer’s backyard.

 

My older son stated the obvious, “We’re lost.”

 

Now we had to backtrack. Still, I didn’t think we had to backtrack all the way. There was a path that had branched off from the one we had come down that I thought would lead us towards the center of the park. Instead we came across signs for the wildlife conservation area. I was even more confused. The signs should’ve been west of us.  We reached the top of a ridge and just saw more ridges before us. At this point, with my nerves starting to whisper, “Danger Will Robinson, danger.” I said, “We are going all the way back.”

 

It was strange because as we headed back, we found markers indicating we were on the Foot Trail but we were definitely not on the trail marked on the map. We continued backtracking. I finally found a well-marked trail going through our “trail”. I told my family to wait at the crossroads while I hiked up his broader trail for a better vantage point. At the top of a bend was a sign that said Horse Trail. I was so turned around at this point, the map was useless.

 

But from here, I saw this trail pass over the next ridge into a valley and then over another ridge where people were standing looking about. We had found our way home! 25 minutes later we arrived at the park’s main road.

 

Unfortunately, when I told the boys we should climb the main rocks now, they looked at me as if I were loony. So, the boys went back to the car, while my wife and I headed to the central rocks. I was bound and determined to climb the darn things since they and I were here. The climb took less than 20 minutes. From the top, we could see the areas we had hiked through and my car in the parking lot where the boys waited.

 

It was a great ending to a long day.

 

 

I highly recommend visiting Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park.

 

Hikespeak.com has a detailed itinerary of the hike around the outside of the park with pictures. The 6-mile loop also incorporates a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail (the PCT), so you can say you hiked a portion of it. Be sure to bring plenty of water and a hat as there are no trees for shade.

 

Enjoy!

Dragons, Bruce Lee, and Red Lanterns, exploring Chinatown

The heart of Los Angeles' Chinatown is packed with restaurants, stores and art galleries in a two-block square area.

From the Chinatown architecture-inspired Gold Line station walk one block west on College Street to North Broadway. The Dragons Gate is a long three blocks south on Broadway. If its daytime there are a number of Chinese shops and mini malls to wander through along the way.

  

The heart of Chinatown lies to the north between College and Bernard Street and Hill and Broadway. As you head north on Broadway make sure you look to your right between the buildings that make up Blossom Plaza for the rows of red lanterns strung between the buildings. They are beautifully illuminated at night.

Halfway up the block will be a stoplight and crosswalk that leads to Chinatown Central Plaza. Here you'll find souvenir shops, herbal stores, a jazz club, bakeries, the Bruce Lee statue, Chinese-style buildings and other interesting things to see.

Most of the Chinese restaurants are outside the plaza on Hill or Broadway. We ate at Full Moon House which I am happy to say states no MSG on their menu. Our dinner of honey walnut shrimp and seafood fried rice was delicious.

General Lee's in the plaza is an interesting two-story craft bar with a wooden interior giving it an old school Far East feel. For Chinese New Year they had a tasty Year of the Dog drink.

Across Hill is Chung King Court and Road. Painted on the side of the Foochow Restaurant on the corner is a note about how they were a filming location for the movie Rush Hour. The buildings and signs surrounding the court and road seemed a bit more run down than the central plaza across the street. However the businesses in the old storefronts are now primarily art galleries, studios and design companies. It was a very interesting contrast between the old and new. Most of the art galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. during the later part of the week and weekends.

Central Plaza architecture

One of the last places to close for the evening that is not alcohol related is Lollicup, a boba tea, ice cream, late-night snack type of place. It closes at 11:00 PM. I thought the ice cream was good and found the seating area with its number of mismatched adornments interesting.

Important note 1:  Keep in mind that most of the stores in Chinatown close by 6 or 7 except during special events like Chinese New Year, so go early if you want to shop.

Important note 2: The Gold Line and Uber make it very easy and inexpensive to reach Chinatown if you don't want drive and hunt for parking. The Gold Line station makes for a great starting point for your excursion.

 

Great Day Santa Monica

Santa Monica is an amazing place to visit for a day or a weekend. From the pier, amusement park rides, 3rd Street Promenade, movie theaters, restaurants, street performers and of course the great sandy beach, there's something for everyone.

 

Everything is close to each other with parking structures throughout the area. We parked in Lot 6 on 2nd street: free first 90 minutes, then $1.00 for every hour thereafter. Not bad if you're headed out only for a few hours.

 

Restaurants run the gamut of cuisines and price. As my son and I were eager to get to the pier, we stopped for a quick bite at Stefano's Pizzeria. They primarily sold pizza by the slice, which I'm sure is one reason why there were a number of high schoolers here. Their outdoor tables are also great for people watching as it was right on the corner of Arizona and 3rd.

From here we walked south on the Promenade past the dinosaur statues, stores and a street magician then through the Santa Monica Place open air mall.
 

Then we joined the throngs of people and headed to the pier on this glorious sunny 75-degree January day. From the top of Ocean Boulevard you have to walk down a long ramp to the pier itself. At the top of the ramp were two sets of street performers. One set was a pair of guys wearing a Trump mask and the other a Kim Jong-un mask who were posing for pictures with tourists. The other was a music dance troupe.

 

On the pier is the historic merry go round, restaurants like Bubba Gump Shrimp, lots of vendors and musicians. I particularly enjoyed watching two young women sing while their father played a ukulele. There were also fishermen on the pier and people swimming in the water. From the pier, are great views of Santa Monica beach and Malibu to the north. Looking south is Venice Beach  and the hill of Palos Verdes.

 

After walking to the end of the pier and passing a sign that said "66 End of the Trail",  we headed back to the car. We stopped at an intranet coffee shop and picked up a good smoothie for the hour and a half long drive to go 15 miles back home. Traffic from Santa Monica to anywhere in L.A. after 4:00 is a tough.

 

A great day out in Santa Monica!

A Day Out: Santa Monica Pier

Singers, snakes, and shakes! These are just a few of the interesting things one can do at the Santa Monica pier.

Saturday afternoon I took the family to the Santa Monica pier. It had been over five years since I had made the trek to the pier and while many things had changed and many more were still the same.

Parking and traffic were just as bad as I remembered. However, the city of Santa Monica now has an interactive parking map with real time updates on how much space each lot has at any given time. It showed us that all the public lots on 4th St. were at 93%, but a lot on 2nd St. was at 33%. Here's link to the site: Santa Monica Parking Map

Parking was free for the first 90 minutes and $1 for each half hour thereafter.

From here we walked ten minutes to the bluffs overlooking Santa Monica beach.

Near the cannon pointing towards the pier, yes a WWII canon sits on the bluff, five men had a number of boa constrictors and exotic birds they allowed bystanders take pictures with in exchange for tips.

From here we followed the throngs down to the pier.

There were more food places than I remembered: a Bubba Gump Shrimp, Pier Burger, Mariasol and a number of others.

There were multiple performers and singers on the pier as well. One woman sang about San Diego and at the very end of the pier with the sun setting behind him, a young man sang "Here Comes The Sun," by George Harrison.

People were still fishing off the pier like when I was a child and one teenager caught a baby mackerel using fishing line wrapped around his hand and kernels of corn from a can of Del Monte sweet corn on a hook.

The arcade and rock shop were also still here, as was the guy with a megaphones reciting bible versus. Probably a different guy, but same depressing message.

Then we headed over to Pacific Park on the pier and rode the Ferris wheel where we saw the last glow of the sun disappearing on the western horizon. This entire area was much filled in since my last visit. I believe the Ferris wheel was the only attraction.

For dinner we ate at Pier Burger which had very good french fries and shakes and then headed back home.

A great way to spend a day.