Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles

Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles (the sequel to the popular Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles) features another collection of exciting urban walks through parks, canyons + neighborhoods unknown + unseen by most Angelinos. Each walk is rated for duration, distance + difficulty + is accompanied by a map. The walks, like those in Secret Stairs, are filled with fascinating factoids about historical landmarks, like the original Bat Cave from Batman, the lake where Opie learned to fish on The Andy Griffith Show, or the storage barn for one of L.A.’s oldest wineries. The book also highlights the people who made the landmarks famous: the infamous water engineer William Mulholland; the convicted murderer + philanthropist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith; Charles Lummis, who walked from Cincinnati to Los Angeles to take a job on the L.A. Times + tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney, who dug canals to drain the marshes south of Santa Monica + create his American Venice. In Charles Fleming’s entertainingly informed style that has made Secret Stairs a Los Angeles Times best-seller, Secret Walks is the perfect book for the walker eager to explore but tired of the crowds at Runyon Canyon or Temescal Park. Softcover. 240 pages.