your right. The handiwork of the Friends of the L.A. River, this is a good place to have a picnic.
Soon you will find yourself running out of walkway. Step through the gate on your right that leads onto a wide, green field shaded by huge sycamore trees, and walk to Los Feliz Boulevard. (If you come to the end of the fence and find a locked gate, go back twenty-five feet and walk left until you find the opening in the fence.)
Walk straight ahead across a grassy patch, then turn right when you hit the sidewalk. Walk a half block to the traffic light, then cross Los Feliz Boulevard and turn left. As you pass the Los Feliz Café—known to locals as “Eats,” because of the big sign—turn into the parking lot. Keep the tiny 9-hole Los Feliz Golf Course on your right, and head for the back of the parking lot. Find a break in the fence, and a paved ramp headed for the river.
Turn right, and enjoy a long flat walk here on the riverbank. Though it’s somewhat obscured by a flood wall, the water below is teeming with life—birds, fish, and in some places, humans and their encampments. On the right, the golf course will end, and a series of horse barns will begin. Many of the city’s equestrians stable their horses here.
Rising before you is the L.A. River’s newest bridge, a gleaming steel and wood-beam structure, opened in early 2020. Use this to cross to the western side of the water, then turn left and continue your river walk as you go south.
A rarity in Los Angeles, this bridge accommodates pedestrians on one side and equestrians on the other as they cross the L.A. River.
In time you will approach Los Feliz Boulevard again, and a bicycle/pedestrian intersection. Bear left, and walk up a ramp that will keep you on the bike path but carry you up and over Los Feliz. Descend, staying mindful of the cyclists, and continue south.
In this section of the riverbank (known as the Glendale Narrows), you can cut out some of the freeway noise and get closer to the birds by descending the concrete bank to the flank of the river itself—but again, only if the weather is very dry.
As you walk along, enjoy the birds that occupy the small islands in the stream. When you get close to Sunnynook River Park and the narrow pedestrian bridge you used to cross the river a while ago, look right for the pedestrian bridge leading over the freeway. Use this to find your way back to the soccer field and the tennis court reservation booth. Then you’ll see the parking lot, and your starting point.
WALK #4
ELYSIAN PARK & BARLOW HOSPITAL
DISTANCE: 2.3 miles
DIFFICULTY: 2
DURATION: 1 hour
DETAILS: Ample free street parking. Dogs on leash allowed. Metro buses #2, #4, #302, and #704. Avoid this walk on Dodger game days.
This is a good leg-stretch that offers some great open spaces near downtown L. A. and some interesting L. A. history from the early 1900s. For a longer hike, this walk pairs up nicely with the Elysian Park & Grace E. Simons Lodge Walk (see Walk #6), which begins nearby.
Begin this walk in Elysian Park, near the intersection of Academy Road and Stadium Way, taking advantage of the ample street parking on Stadium or the parking lot just north of Academy.
Start walking south (downhill) on Stadium, along an avenue with stately date palms lining both sides of the wide street. On the west side, you’ll find picnic tables, drinking fountains, play structures, public restrooms, and other amenities. Along the east side, you’ll find more picnic tables and a drinking fountain or two.
If you’re on the east side, you’ll notice a sign for “Montecillo de Leo Politi.” This is not a miniature Jeffersonian Monticello (note the different spelling), but a small park-inside-a-park dedicated to local nature lover and children’s book writer Leo Politi, who was also author of Tales of the Los Angeles Parks. This mini-park is open between dawn and 3 PM, according to the city. If you wish, explore this area before continuing your walk.
A plinth erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution in the Victory Memorial Garden.
Make your way along the gradual downward slope of Stadium Way, across Scott Avenue, and onto the grounds of the Barlow Respiratory Hospital. Formerly the Barlow Sanitarium, this oasis for tuberculosis patients was founded in 1902 by Walter Jarvis Barlow, who had come west looking for a cure for his own respiratory ailments. He purchased a twenty-five-acre parcel of land from wealthy L. A. landowner J. B. Lankershim for $7,300, and began construction. A man of prodigious energies, Barlow would go on to found the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and act as dean of the newly formed UCLA School of Medicine.
Much remains of the historic medical campus, despite an ongoing campaign by developers to turn this swath of Elysian Park into a massive condo project. (An equally fierce ongoing campaign by those opposed to the development has kept it from starting for more than a decade.) An inscription on a big chunk of granite near the hospital entrance explains that Barlow founded the hospital and gave it all he had, including the “endless wine of sympathy.”
Other metal plaques affixed to buildings state that the original architects were B. B. Bixby and Edward L. Mayberry, whose 1902 work is now afforded Historic-Cultural Monument status, and that the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated at least two outbuildings to the American Red Cross for “Soldiers and Sailors” just after the first World War.
The hospital, though diminished in importance, is still in use, and still occupied by patients. Several campus buildings are used for teaching and administration. But most of the charming Craftsman bungalows on the west side of the street are boarded up.
Continue along Stadium past this charming time capsule and past North Boylston Street, and climb a short hill to reach Vin Scully Avenue.
For an amusing side trip, turn left at the corner, into Dodger Stadium’s Sunset Gate. A guard will ask to see your identification, then give you a little sticker that will allow you to walk across the vast parking lot and visit the stadium gift shop—and take a look at the empty baseball field.
Otherwise, turn right onto Vin Scully Avenue, climb, climb a little more, and then turn right again onto Lilac Terrace.
Up ahead, you’ll see a sign for Victory Memorial Grove. That’s your destination. Follow Lilac Terrace up a slight rise, staying on the uphill half of this divided road, past some pleasant shingled bungalows in need of some TLC. At the top of the hill, turn right into the park just before you reach a wide, gated driveway. You’ll find yourself on a narrow, partially paved walkway.
Follow this path as it winds across the lower section of the Victory Memorial Grove, under some deodara, oak, and bay laurel shade, and enjoy the views of downtown L. A. Stay with the path as it switchbacks up and left, turning the view into a Dodger Stadium vista. Cross a paved road, climb a short brick staircase, and follow the narrow path as it climbs a short rise. At the plateau, on a hillside dotted with pines and eucalyptus, you will find bigger views of Dodger Stadium and the Barlow Hospital compound.
Near the path, you
