Elysian Park

Portola Trail

5-miles round trip with 200 feet of elevation gain.

Although it's near the central city, Elysian Park is usually uncrowded. It has a remote feeling--possibly because access is a bit confusing. Elysian Park appears to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. You can see the park while motoring along the Golden State and Pasadena Freeways, and you pass through it on the way to Dodger Stadium; to commuters and Dodger fans, it's a familiar sight. But when you explore the park on foot, it somehow seems as if it's in the middle of nowhere.

Elysian Park's hilly acreage is an undeveloped remnant of the original 17,172-acre Spanish land grant from which Pueblo de Los Angeles grew. More than 10 miles of hiking trails and dirt fire roads lead through some surprisingly wild terrain. 

Portola Trail takes you through shady glens, over grass carpets and past rare palms. You can picnic under imported rubber trees or native oaks and enjoy the views of the Big Basin offered by the park's promontories.

The trail and the historical marker at the trailhead honor explorer Don Gaspar de Portola who, with Father Juan Crespi, led the first overland expedition to California. On Aug. 2, 1769, Capt. Portola's party camped on the banks of the Los Angeles River near what would soon become Pueblo de Los Angeles.

^ top

The hike: Head uphill on wide Portola Trail, which soon crosses Park Row Drive. You'll pass among oak and eucalyptus trees, top a grassy knoll, then descend to Park Row Drive, which you'll join and follow over a bridge that spans the Pasadena Freeway.

Beyond the freeway bridge is a junction with a dirt fire road on your right. The next mile of travel is through the most tranquil part of the park. Portola Trail winds through a zany mixture of trees that you would find only in Southern California--eucalyptus, walnut, oak, pine and palm.

Your path crosses East Park Drive and continues on a narrow hillside path. Periodically, you will emerge from the greenery and look down at the metropolis in miniature: freight yards, Glendale, Interstate 5. Beware of a small amount of poison oak that crowds the trail in a couple of places.

As the trail descends toward Stadium Way, the cacophony of urban life is gradually overwhelmed by bird music. Mockingbirds, jays, red-tailed hawks, bush tits, Audubon's warblers, red-shafted flickers, house finches and many more birds have been spotted in Elysian Park. The great wealth of trees here attracts many birds. In 1940, the California Audubon Society dedicated the park as a bird sanctuary.

^ top

You'll enjoy views of Dodger Stadium, which occupies Chavez Ravine in the southwest corner of the park. During pueblo days, indigents were buried in a "potter's field" in the ravine, and as a quarantine area during nineteenth century smallpox epidemics. The name belongs to Julian Chavez, city councilman circa 1850 and the original owner of the canyon.

Portola Trail reaches a junction with Elysian Park Drive and Stadium Way. On the west side of Stadium Way is a wide grassy area for picnicking. Within easy walking distance are other park attractions: Palm Hill, the fountain and stream of Grace S. Simons Lodge, the Arboretum and Elysian Fields.

Those wishing to extend their walk will pick up a bridle trail from the grassy knoll of Palm Hill and climb south for views of Dodger Stadium and the Los Angeles skyline.

^ top