Walking L.A. #18, Lower Beachwood Canyon: Remnants of Ancient Spirituality in the Hollywood Hills, 2.6 miles, 109 stairs 

A reverse-angle tour through the familiar hills above Franklin between the 101 and Beachwood Canyon. When Hollywood consolidated into L.A. in 1910, it was still a small community with dirt roads and framed with steep hills overlooking the city. The film industry would find its way to Sunset & Gower in 1911, creating a demand for housing, and many of the apartments built for creative hopefuls still dot the flats. A year later, members of the Theosophical Society built a mystical, 11-acre, 18-building community called Krotona on the hill above Vista Del Mar Avenue. Barbara and I began our hike at Krotona's south entrance: the Vista Del Mar Steps, a 1920 L.A. historic-cultural landmark that began life as the "Krotona Flight"—"ascent into a spiritual realm"— 61 steps down to the trolley stop at Franklin at Argyle. An old beauty in need of a makeover, the staircase has the bones—it just needs some care. The house at the top is said to be haunted. I've read some wild (unverified) stories about flying kettles, books, bananas, and a cabbage imbedded with a butcher knife floating through the halls, but the eeriest part could be the mystery of the exterior statues. But on to Krotona. The most notable remaining structure is Krotona Court, the community center of action—now an apartment building— with a fountain and lily pond in the courtyard and a 350-seat auditorium in back. The Theosophists left in 1926 for Ojai to escape the growing Hollywood community. Lacking a single developer with a set plan, the neighborhood became a mix of you-name-it architecture from the French-Normandy apartment complex for aspiring actresses to rundown wooden shacks, tidy cottages, hillside castles, modern designs, and Tudor, English, Moorish, Spanish, and Mediterranean Revival homes populating the hills. Everyone has a killer view and a windy, steep, narrow road home. Loving the first blue-sky Sunday morning in months, we hiked the hills to a hidden staircase, and started down the stretch with a stroll through the Vedanta Society complex. A small circle of buildings surrounding a lovely white temple, the Vedanta Society of SoCal hosts lectures, seminars, meditations, and yoga classes based on ancient India scripture. This neighborhood has personality—but not just one; and history—but not locked in one period, developing like Hollywood and the film industry: a mixture of old, new, conservative, and experimental, honoring the past but not dwelling there. By the time we returned to our starting point, our legs were ready for a mocha at the classic 101 Coffee Shop. Challenging!