Secret Walks #30: Tujunga Wash Art Walk, 2.5 miles.

Today's hike took Barbara and me along a stretch of the Tujunga Wash, built in 1951-52 between Burbank and Victory Boulevards as part of the tributary of the L.A. River and the L.A. drainage system. But the stunning headliner was The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a mural along the wash on Coldwater Canyon Blvd. bordering Grant High School and Valley College between Oxnard and Burbank Boulevards. Designed by Judith Baca and executed by 400 community youths and artists from 1978-1984. The 6-block, 13-ft. high Social Realism mural was painted on concrete (one of the longest murals in the world), and depicts the history of California seen through the eyes of women and minorities. Hopefully the NEA will survive long enough to fund the continuation of the mural to include the years from 1984 to the present. A beautiful, often painful, visit to the past.