Walking L.A. #6: UCLA Campus—Ivy League Style with a West Coast Twist, 3.35 miles.

Hike a campus? Incredible when you have an entire 419-acre campus to yourself, and at 8 a.m. on a Sunday, it was Barbara, me, and a few hundred sprightly, well-fed squirrels. A serene, inspiring, three-act hike combining art, architecture, and nature. The first part: a stroll through the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, the largest sculpture garden on the West Coast. What fun to critique each sculpture, like Etroq's 1964 "Mother and Child" piece pictured below. Mother? Check. Child? Um, okay... Next we headed across Dicksen Court to the Historic Quad between the original four Italian Romanesque Revival style buildings (Kinsey, Haims, Royce Hall, and the Powell Library) built when the campus opened in Westwood in 1929. Alone, without 44,000 students rushing to and from class, these regal buildings made me feel smart just walking NEXT to them. Down the Janss Steps—the original entrance to the campus—and past the Student Activities Center for a stop to rub the nose of the Bruin Bear for luck before heading to hike part three: the 7-acre Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. Mildred, a noted botanist who received her PhD in 1929, oversaw and helped to develop the garden from '56 to '74 into what it is today. In an urban campus in the 2nd largest city in the U.S., the garden is an escape into a magical woodland where Mother Nature rules and every plant is identified. This hike went from "sure, why not?" when Barbara and I chose it, to "wow, this goes on the list of favorites" when we finished. Tip: the early Sunday start is a must for having the place to yourself. Worth it.