March turned out to be a slow month for the View, as beaucoup overtime and auto repairs meant having to temporarily suspend all long-distance day trips. Fortunately for us, Los Angeles is a very big city, and in every very big city, there are places to go and things to do. For the Culture Hungry, the LACMA, MOCA, and Getty Museums offer up inexpensive art exhibits that can absorb entire weekends; the Starry Eyed can photograph their way down Hollywood Boulevard and hopscotch along their favorite film and TV personalities on the Walk of Fame; the Morbidly Curious can visit the crunchy-haired shopping addicts on Rodeo Drive and the life-size He-man action figures flexing plasticy pecs on Muscle Beach; and the People Watchers can satisfy their appetites… pretty much anywhere.
But the cracked streets and the almost palpable grit and the throngs of ego-mad Angelenos can start to feel a little close after a while, and when the city life gets too busy it’s comforting to know that there are also interesting places within (and just without) the city limits where a body can still find some peace, and get a dose of clean air and sunshine in the bargain.
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Nestled in the San Gabriel Mountains just north of
Burbank, and accessible from the Angeles Forest Highway/California State Road 2, the semi-famous
Mt. Wilson is home to a celestial observatory (closed to the public during the fall and winter months), as well as numerous bike- and foot-paths that wind around its base and up to its peak. The observatory is a little known and sparsely populated tourist destination, so there are no large crowds to contend with.
(don’t all rush out at once… you’ll ruin the effect.)
Scant hours before our beloved Toyota slipped into its tragic coma, we were lucky enough to spend a clear Saturday morning scrambling around the hiking trails on Mt. Wilson. This particular Saturday came after a weekend rain, and the LA haze gave way to a view extending all the way out to the wide open Pacific. The height of Mt. Wilson seems perfectly balanced so that the air cools the skin as the sun warms the blood, and fresh powder dresses the shaded areas even into March and April, when the temperature in the city below begins to rise. In a year and a month of Los Angeles residency, it is far and away our favorite spot for a day of meditation and relaxation, followed in close second by the highway overlook just past the start of the Angeles Crest, which offers a near perfect place to sit, read, and enjoy a cooler full of what-have-you in the summer sun.
