For this Friday afternoon-into-evening stairway walk from Secret Stairs, Beth and I covered Walk #27. For this one, we got to pass a couple of Easter Island mo’ai (which I now know are called mo’ai), a muddy dirt road more in-place in a rural woodsy area of the country, and a house/exhibit reportedly with a…
Eagle Rock
Beth and I planned to cover two stairway walks today from Secret Stairs: “Whitley Heights” (# 36) and “Hollywood Bowl and High Tower Loop” (#37), both of which start and end at the intersection of Highland and Franklin Avenues in Hollywood. Before driving to Hollywood though, we fortunately noticed the 2023 Academy Awards on schedule…
Santa Monica – Rustic Canyon Loop
With legs holding two days of stairs already this weekend, Beth and I drove to Santa Monica for Walk #40 from Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, climbing the steepest stairways yet. Early in the walk, we got some directions from a couple of kind ladies out on their…
Los Feliz – Griffith Park Loop
For the second of three planned walks this weekend, we chose Walk #29 from Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, which winds through hilly areas of the Los Feliz district and culminates at the Griffith Observatory, which we reached just at sunset. Highlights include the Ennis House (a Frank…
Pasadena – La Loma Road
Walk #1 from Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles is the Secret Stair walk closest to home, scaling the San Rafael hillside area of western Pasadena. Starting this first evening walk of stairs for Beth and me, it appeared that a number of houses chose to drain swimming pools,…
Avalon-Baxter Loop
Beth and I went on Walk #15 from Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles by ourselves today. We climbed stairs on lots of wet hillsides and enjoyed views of low snowlines in the hills and mountains to the north. We lucked out with this one partly-sunny day in between…
Happy Valley and Montecito Heights
Spyros joined Beth and me for Walk #10 from Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, trekking up and down through neighborhoods just northwest of the point where Mission Rd turns into Huntington Dr. Most of our walk took us through Rose Hill and Hungry Valley, with views of Montecito…
Astro Loop
Walk #23 from Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles climbs and descends hills in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, up against Interstate 5 and the LA River. In addition to the stairs and hill houses, Beth and I walked along a portion of the Corralitas Red Line…
Mt. Washington
Walk #5 from Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, starts near Southwestern Museum and makes a clockwise loop in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, just southwest of Highland Park. Open this hike on Garmin Connect
Switzer Falls
We intended to do Hike 29 (“Bear Canyon Traverse”) from Trails of the Angeles, but weather and icy pavement closed Mt Wilson Road today. Rather than adding 2.4 miles of road walking to get to the trailhead, we improvised by going west from Red Box on the Gabrielino Trail to Switzer’s Picnic Area and then…