Secret Walks #17: Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir, 1.2 miles

This serene, 605 acre park is a short hop SW off the intersection of Coldwater Canyon and Mulholland Drive. I've stressed in traffic jams at that intersection a zillion times without realizing that peace, calm, and ducks were a right turn away. In 1914, Wm. Mulholland (him again) built the reservoir that created the 3 acre lake. Oil Baron E.L. Doheny's family used the lake for a summer retreat. The film industry discovered it in the '30s and made the park famous. You KNOW this place! Among its TV and film appearances: the hitchhiking scene in It Happened One Night, the opening credits of The Andy Griffiths Show, the lagoon in The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the pond in On Golden Pond, Bonanza, Lassie, Star Trek, Murder She Wrote, Silence of the Lambs, NCIS, Sons of Anarchy, True Blood. And the cover of the Simon & Garfunkel LP Sounds of Silence. But, for Barbara and me, the local ducks—completely unruffled by our presence, and the turtle pond with dozens of little black heads popping up to check us out, were the most entertaining sights of the morning.