Results tagged “trails”

              

Just a few minutes north of the busy Los Feliz Boulevard is a peaceful outdoor setting, perfect for a light snack or lunch. Owned by a music producer, Trails Cafe sits on Fern Dell Drive inside Griffith Park's Western end serving up homemade and organic-vegetarian friendly food to hikers and those who just want to sneak away from the urban feeling, if only for a half hour.

                     

Who wants to spend hundreds of dollars a year on a gym membership when Mother Nature gave us California's glorious and varied landscape to explore for free, right? Some of the spots get talked about more than others, while others just sit quietly, doing their thing, and possibly remain unexplored. Up above Burbank are some lovely hills--you may have driven up there to have a meal with a view at Castaways, or you may have stuck to the lowlands--and they boast Wildwood Canyon park. There are a couple of miles worth of trails (described as "moderately strenuous") open inside the park, so grab your shoes and some water, and head on over.

Locally, we've got trails maintained by the city, county and state governments. But one of the lesser known functions of the National Park Service is their National Trails System, which self described as "the network of scenic, historic, and recreation trails created by the National Trails System Act of 1968."

Over the last forty years, the California State Parks Foundation along with its 100,000 members has grown into a powerhouse advocacy group on behalf of keeping nature available to us. Now in their 40th year, they are celebrating by producing 40 short podcasts, each with a resident sharing their favorite trail.

Verdugo Mountain Park is now the 6th largest park in Los Angeles, thanks to Councilwoman Wendy Greuel's $2.7 million expenditure of Proposition K money to purchase 225 acres of open space, securing it from outside development. The park is located in the northeast Valley at the edge of northern Glendale and is home to an annual hike and trail run in November.

Environmental and neighborhood groups are organizing to save Griffith Park from the possibility of development. Last month, Col. Griffith J. Griffith's grandson and the Griffith J. Griffith Charitable Trust put in an application to formally preserve the park by getting it designated as a historic landmark.