LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a member-supported public media network. Hear our news on-air at our partner site:
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
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.”
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.