Uncrowded LA and OC parks to visit.
During the early Covid lockdown in LA, and ever since, the authorities said, if you paid attention, that you didn’t have to lock yourself indoors; it was okay to go for walks in the local park as long as you distanced and wore a mask. I pushed the local park concept a little, but I avoided people and stayed safe.
Disclaimer: I am not encouraging anyone to go out and visit these parks.
On my last motorcycle trip to Alaska, I met a guy at a trading post who said that the best trip he ever went on was the one where he never got to his destination. In the limit, then, the best trip should be the one where you never left home. I had some big plans this year to go see the Isle of Man TT, but I had to settle for something a little closer.
For those of you who are impatient, here is a link to my 2020 photo galleries this year:
http://ikemi.info/mytravel2020.html
Starting at the April 22 entry, all of the galleries are about my explorations of local parks that I deemed to be safe. You can look through the photos and see if there is anything of interest.
Some of the parks were closed during the initial lockdown, but they should all be open by now, unless they were damaged by the terrible fires we experienced. Make sure to check the websites before you go. Wear a mask and keep your distance.
One place that never closed is the LA Arboretum in Arcadia, the home of Fantasy Island and Tarzan. If you’re not a member, you need to buy timed tickets in advance. One of my favorite places in LA.
Built on a former dump (you’d never imagine), the South Coast Botanical Garden also requires times tickets purchased online. Even members need to make reservations, but it’s not too difficult. After LACMA self-destructed, a lot (most?) of the modern outdoor sculptures (but not the sculptures, if you know what I mean) found homes in exile here.
In Claremont, the botanical garden there was somewhat grandiosely renamed The California Botanical Garden. It also requires tickets purchased online. Lots of forest to walk through. Kind of brutal in the summer.
In the above cases, the ticket systems keep the crowd density down.
Legg Lake in El Monte takes me back to my childhood. At one time they rocket ship jungle jims! All gone now, but the three lakes are still there. One has a model race boat facility so you can watch those if you catch it at the right time. The fun and unique concrete sculptures made by a Mexican artist were recently restored. Go find them all!
A lot of money has been poured into the Hahn State Recreational Area. The site of the Baldwin Hills Reservoir Disaster and an Olympic Village, there are plenty of trails and facilities, including frisbee gold inside the old reservoir bowl. The Japanese garden could use some maintenance, but there is a fishing lake and an artificial cascading stream. A bridge was recently added so that you can walk to the new Stoneview Nature Center which is actually open, very unusual in these times of Coved. From there you can climb to the Baldwin Overlook for spectacular views. Parking fee on weekends.
Unfortunately the nature center at White Point near San Pedro is closed, but now you can go hiking again. Plenty of free parking. Once the site of a Japanese American swimming resort, you can also walk over the magazines of a Nike Hercules missile base whose command and control center was near Fort McArthur. (Another case of H-bombs in our backyard.) You can climb (and I do mean climb) up to the top to see the giant 16” naval rifle bunkers which are missing their guns but still intact. At one time at Fort McArthur they told me that the innards, the magazines and shell handling machinery, are still intact behind locked gates.
As you drive up the Pasadena Freeway, you would never know that the vast Debs Park is across from what used to be the Southwest Museum (now part of the Autry). I blundered into the main entrance back in my bicycling days. Usually pretty empty except for Holidays when the picnic grounds get totally jammed with overflow parking. Not happening this year. Most trails are mainly wide roads, the main one to the top paved. You can also connect to the south to Rose Park. The parks are supposedly near the intended path of The California Cycleway, an elevated wooden bicycle road that was to run from Highland Park to the Green Hotel in Pasadena. Apparently it only made it from the Green to the Raymond Hotel. There were murders in this park a few years ago.
San Vicente Mountain Park has a few options. Access is via dirt roads, so be prepared. You can drive right up to the park gate, or park near the turn-off or above and walk in for your walk. If you park at the park, there are more trails going off into the hills for more options. This park is a former Nike missile command center with some of the platforms still viewable. They are fenced off and you cannot climb on them, although it appeared that they were accessible at one time. This site commanded missile launchers in the Sepulveda Basin behind the Japanese Garden.
Santa Fe Dam charges an entrance fee, but they stop sometime in the winter. Long flat trails along the reservoir, and there is even a beach, which you can’t use during the pandemic.
Chino Hills is vast. Rolling landscapes and some interesting trails. You can park outside the gates and hike in or pay the entrance fee and park inside, but parking appeared to be very limited. I only experienced a small part of the park.
You can make a nice, interesting loop going through Marvin Braude Park. There is street parking near the Caballero Canyon Trailhead. Lots of parking in the park, too.
Heritage Park in Santa Fe Springs is small and flat but has some interesting sights such as the windmill and the remains of the estate that used to be there at one time. Too bad the little museum is closed and the train engine is off limits.
Upper Newport Bay Nature Reserve has rolling trails that go by the bay. My parents used to go water skiing about 55 years ago. The nature center is large and impressive, but also closed and spooky in a way. Free parking lot.
Sycamore Canyon switchbacks next to Rose Hills are a gutbuster. If you make it to the water tank, you can be rewarded with a real view if the air is clear. Brutal in the summer and the view may be obscured. Free parking lot but very small. You can keep going past the switchback turn-off, but you run into the park boundary eventually.
Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve has two main entrances and some trail options once you get in. Watch out for the bird watchers, but there is plenty of room. There is also a trailhead on the inland side near where giant bunkers for the 16” coastal defense guns. A developer tore out the unfinished bunkers, but now the bmx kids use the empty area. This was the sister site to the one in Whites Point. I go to this area repeatedly.
Niguel Botanic Preserve in Laguna Niguel is much nicer than it looks from the large parking lot. It’s on a hillside so be ready to do some uphill walking.
Talbert Regional Park in Costa Mesa has some interesting trails and appears to be part of a complex of parks. Tall wooden staircase to get you from the lower level to the upper side. I parked at an adjacent park and took a long walk in, which other people were doing. I’ll have to see if there is an easier way to get in, but heck, I go to walk anyway.
El Dorado Park in Long Beach has a nice wilderness trail. Parking fee but you can park on the street if you don’t mind a little extra walk. A little more crowded that I would like, but manageable.
Arroyo Pescadero Trail in Puente Hills has interesting wilderness trails. Right before I arrived a car was broken into. Small, free parking lot.
I found that I have some more photo galleries I forgot to post and I didn’t get to all the parks listed. So, there will be a part 2. Of course, there are also more parks I want to visit.
Use Google maps or Apple maps to locate these parks. The satellite views can give you a better idea of the trails and where there is parking. I found a lot of places, such as Arroyo Pescadero, just by examining satellite views. Out of courtesy, take a mask and wear it when you encounter people on the trail. That seems to be a universal practice in both LA County and OC
Hike by yourself or only with your current social bubble/pod. Go straight home afterwards.
Hope this helps keep some of my associates from going stir crazy which could lead to risky behavior.
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