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Video: Soarin' Over the Santa Monica Mountains in a Hang Glider
via LA Observed, which recommends watching it in HD
If it isn't the most popular attraction at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim and EPCOT in Florida -- wow, those lines are intensely long -- "Soarin' over California" is most definitely one of the most exciting. For those who haven't had the chance to ride, it's a hang glider simulation in an IMAX theatre, complete with redwood forest smells and wind.
Possibly taking a cue from that, the National Park Service is making a video for its newly planned Calabasas visitor center for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Above is a section from it, and that soundtrack makes it feel very Disney-esque.
“This is the first time that we’ve had this kind of aerial footage. It’s just a spectacular point of view. You literally fly through canyons,” Woody Smeck told L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's office. “The image that I like the most is when he’s sweeping down along the coastline…It’s like coming down from heaven.”
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Adds Yaroslavsky himself: "As this video clip shows, there are very few places in our nation that possess the Santa Monicas’ immense beauty and resource value in such close proximity to a metropolis the size of Los Angeles."
We couldn't agree more. In fact, this makes us want to take off to Circle X Ranch in the western portion of the mountains and hike to the highest point in the range: Sandstone Peak.
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