This was a pretty nice walk, and I even did it on a day, in the afternoon no less, when it was 100 degrees F, and didn’t pass out. You see some interesting things on the way. It’s a bit over 4 miles total, and you have lots of chances to rest. Just do it on a day when the libraries on the way are open.
Technically, this walk takes place northeast of Los Angeles proper, but same difference.
Step 1: Go to Del Mar Station
The first thing to do is to take the light rail metro to the Del Mar station, and try not to be killed, and step out into the concrete jungle, blinking your eyes rapidly against the blinding sun. Walk across the park in front of you until you get to Fair Oaks Avenue. The park is not all that shady, so it won’t relieve you much from the sun.
Step 2: See a bit of Pasadena
You are going to be walking through some of the Pasadena business district. Now, I never found this area that riveting. Other people say it’s cute, it’s not, it’s just concrete. Walk north just a bit on Fair Oaks Avenue, and when you get to Green Street, turn west onto it. This street is actually kind of nice. It’s quite shady. It has somewhat cute-looking buildings and interesting shops and cafes that I’m sure are all very expensive.
Step 3: walk across the Colorado Street Bridge
Next up, you are going to go sailing through the sky, above a bit of greenery that Los Angeles accidentally left in place called the “Arroyo”. You’re going to do this by walking across the Colorado Street Bridge. They are very attached to the Colorado Street Bridge in these parts, I don’t recall the history of it, but you get some views of the park below you, and if you walk very close to the tall stone wall, you will get some shade the whole way across.
Step 4: San Rafael and the fancy houses
Now, when I did this, I was just trying to get to the San Rafael library because there was an obscure book there that I wanted to check out. I had a preconceived notion that this library was probably in a very grungy and ramshackle part of town. Imagine my surprise when I got spit out the other end of the Colorado Street Bridge, turned south onto San Rafael Avenue, and walked smack into the biggest mansions I’ve ever seen. They are like humongous humongous. They’re the sort of houses where the yards are big enough to house a botanical garden. They all had electric gates and tall metal fences and etc. There was no sidewalk, just a grassy shoulder. I was dressed in my raggedy clothes, knowing it was such a hot day, and not really having anyone or any place in mind to impress. And there I was, skipping down the street of the billionaires and multi-millionaires. Apparently one of these houses is where Spiderman or Superman or Batman or something was shot. I didn’t take any photos, because I was afraid someone would rush out and accuse me of breaking the rules. Because this area is so wealthy, it is well shaded, but by now, the heat was starting to get to me.
Step 5: San Rafael library
I walked just a bit more, and then I came to the library. It’s a very nice library. I did this walk on a Friday, and it was a school day, and the library was quite empty. It’s small, but I had such a great time browsing, and it was nice to have it almost to myself. Also, it was air-conditioned. So this is where you stop to rest. I had also brought some food with me. I checked out my books, and then I went to the patio just behind the library where there are some tables where you can sit. I was able to find a position where I was sitting in the shade. And even though it was like 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I was able to be pretty comfortable. I also, of course, refilled my water bottle inside the library. I stayed here for like 2 hours, just resting and reading and writing. Note that the San Rafael library belongs to the Pasadena public library system.
Step 6: Walk to Highland Park
Now, San Rafael Library was actually supposed my last stop. But when I looked at the map, I realized that I was far away from all the metro stations around me. I could walk all the way back to the Del Mar station, but it was exactly as far as if I was to walk onwards to the Highland Park metro station. There are two stations between Del Mar and Highland Park, but I couldn’t get to either of them easily, either, mostly because they’re on the other side of the Arroyo and the river that goes through it (“river”, the one they paved under, haha.) So I decided I might as well be adventurous and go further and walk to Highland Park. There was a bus that goes to Highland Park. In fact, I could see the bus go roaring past on the street from where I was sitting at the library patio. This bus comes every hour or something? Or was it 30 minutes or 20 minutes? I don’t remember. I just remember that several buses roared past as I rested myself at the library, and by the time I was ready to go, a bus had just gone by and there was a long wait for the next one. I looked down the road. It was downhill and looked kind of shady. So I decided to walk. It wasn’t too bad of a walk. I walked and walked, and was mostly in the shade. It wasn’t until I got to Highland Park that all the trees disappeared, and I was again just surrounded by dust and concrete, and it was miserably hot.
I did pass by a place called Penny’s Burgers, which is some old well-known spot, so if you wanted some food by this point, you could stop here. It looked nice in the American old-fashioned burgers and french fries way (but maybe expensive, I don’t remember).
Step 7: the Arroyo Seco Branch library
Now, all this time, I was just trying to get to the Highland Park metro station, when I came across my second library of the day! Unlike the San Rafael Library, this one belongs to the Los Angeles city library system, and it’s the closest library branch of this system to Pasadena. The outside doesn’t look like much, it sort of looked like an abandoned building getting ready to fall over. There were one or two people shouting to themselves, or having imaginary conversations with themselves or with invisible people at the entrance, but I was able to walk in anyways. It’s like an old-timey looking library on the inside, with a second floor balcony and old wooden reception desks and railings, and those green lamps from back in the day. I really really liked it. Full of books, too. It’s not that small of a building. There were so many books, it gave me that despairing feeling of realizing I’ll never have enough time to read and re-read all the books that deserve to be read. I had happened to come upon the library right around 4:30, I think, and they were just half an hour to closing (unless it was 5:30 and they were closing at 6), but I think I still checked out 4 books (and probably left more on the shelves that I wanted to take).
Step 8: Highland Park park and Friday Night free food and ice cream!
Now, already in this walk, I had run into so many surprises — the fancy houses at San Rafael, which I’d thought was like a dump, and the second library approaching Highland Park, and now came the third surprise! I was hungry by this time, of course. I was kind of wishing I’d gotten something from Penny’s Burgers. I had been out and about by now for maybe 5 or 6 hours, and even with having some food with me to snack on, I had worked up an appetite with all my walking. Wouldn’t you know it, but when I left the Arroyo Seco library at the closing time, and was continuing the short walk to the metro station, I first walked right into a park. It’s right next to the library. There were a lot of people there, and there were some city workers setting things up, and as I walked around, I heard someone say something about free ice cream. That of course stopped me in my tracks, and I asked and found out that on this night, when I had just happened to go stumbling out and about in Los Angeles, they were having a free food party in this very park where I’d ended up! Isn’t it amazing! It’s part of a summer program that Los Angeles does, where they go into poorer neighborhoods and they have a cook-out, all free! You don’t need to register or sign up or prove you live there or anything. Okay, so Los Angeles does some decent things. They also have a big table set up where they give away bags of free fruits and vegetables, and diapers. And they had live music the whole time! I had gotten there like just half an hour before it was going to start, so I got the full experience. The cook-out line offered us burgers, tomatoes, an orange, onions, lettuce, pickles, everything, plus ketchup and mustard and mayonnaise and then you could also get a bag of chips and watermelon. Then you could go to another table and get a bubbly soda/fruit drink. Then there was an ice cream truck and if you were one of the first hundred people in the cook-out line, you got a ticket for a free vanilla ice cream from there! Then there was a man from the public transit at a table, and he was giving out all sorts of swag from the metro, pencils and pins. The music band I think was indigenous, if I remember correctly, and they were like very peace-loving and said nice things, and their music was nice too. I wish I remember what they were called. Any case, this was so so nice.
Step 9: Highland Park metro and return
I was now fed and rested, and was happy in that way you get when the community is all out and everyone is happy and cheerful and you have a sense of togetherness. People were dancing to the music and clapping and everything. Kids were playing everywhere. It was getting dark by now, too. On that note, I walked the last 2 or 3 blocks to the Highland Park metro station, and from there, you can take the metro back to wherever you need to go.
I give this walk through Los Angeles a 5 out of 5!
Other walks through Los Angeles:
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