Secret Stairs #10: Happy Valley and Montecito Heights, 3.7 miles, 626 steps.

Last week Hollywood Hills mansions. This week shotgun-shack bungalows, treacherous dirt and gravel roads, steep streets, and yapping, need-a-bath dogs in neglected yards. This is one of L.A.'s most unknown areas, 5 miles east of city hall and rural as a crowing rooster. Mother Nature, oblivious to the condition of the neighborhood, did her thing with sweeping views so astonishing we took a video to do her justice. The staircases built in 1928 were brutal, typified by the 191 step, multiple landing monster pictured below. The unpaved, rutted road I'm climbing is a section of Turquoise Street, a dicey challenge even to a four-wheel drive.

A tough hike, very tough, but so worth it.