Mulholland Drive reaches the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains at Runyon Canyon’s upper entrance. This is the first of numerous Mulholland overlooks – overlooks that offer bird’s-eye views of Universal Studios and vistas of the San Fernando Valley. Often crowded with tourists, a stop is still worth making, not because of the overlook’s uninspiring view of the Hollywood Bowl’s seating area but because of the spectacular panoramic view that stretches from the Hollywood Sign to Santa Monica Bay. The closest view site to Cahuenga Pass is the Hollywood Bowl Overlook. From there, Mulholland glides to lower elevations and once it reaches Calabasas, changes persona from “Drive” to “Highway.”Īlong the way some of Mulholland Drive’s panoramic view sites may invite a pause to admire the breadth and geographic diversity of Los Angeles. From there it winds its way to the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains which it then straddles until it reaches Woodland Hills. Mulholland Drive begins at Cahuenga Pass, next to the urban frenzy of the 101 Freeway. Both Mulholland sections offer scenic views, history lessons and opportunities for serendipitous discovery.Įxploring the Mulholland Parkway is enjoyable any time of the year but maximum pleasure comes during those winter days, often following a rain, when the sky is sparkling clear. The other part is thirty miles long, is called a highway, begins in Calabasas and ends at the Pacific Ocean. The twenty-four miles long Mulholland Drive, which opened in 1924, begins at Hollywood’s Cahuenga Pass and winds its way to Calabasas. City engineers made the vision an actuality, causing a massive reordering of the natural environment as they did so. In the 1920s developers, hoping to enhance the value of their Hollywood Hills investments, provided sustenance to William Mulholland’s vision of a scenic road that would take urbanites to the mountains and the beaches. However, this month and next I offer a few suggestions about a “Sunday drive” along the Mulholland Scenic Parkway – a setting for numerous films, detective novels and songs as well the home locale for a smattering of entertainment industry stars. But perhaps counter-intuitively, Los Angeles has many roads that are well suited for relaxing, exploratory drives – drives that can also generate serendipitous discoveries.įrom time to time I will suggest routes that are conducive to “Sunday drives.” These will range from the urban setting of Central Avenue with its sweet to bittersweet history to Sunset Boulevard and its samples of luxury and poverty, decadence and accomplishment. Such images may not seem a good fit for Los Angeles with its vast network of freeways filled with drivers, forever in a hurry. The words “Sunday drive” evoke pastoral images of a solitary, slowly moving car traveling along back roads that pass bucolic farms. The automobile enabled a new leisure activity, the “Sunday drive.” It also sired the pejorative, “Sunday driver,” used during the workweek to describe a driver whose car limps languidly along the highway as compatriots rushing to work try to pass.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |