The Repetto hills dot the eastern urban landscape of El Sereno, south on the 5 past Dodger Stadium and downtown LA. Homes pepper some of the hills, others are painted with trees and champaign-colored brush offering getaways from the city while still in the city. Today's hike from Charles Fleming's April 9, 2016 post in the Los Angeles Times took Barbara and me to the section of the Repettos called Ascot Hills Park, a serene, 93-acre getaway with a past knitted into the history of Los Angeles. Tongva Indians named it the "Place of Roses" after the wood roses lining a nearby stream. In 1771, the land became part of nearby Mission San Gabriel. In 1831, a Mexican land grant included the hills in the 3,283-acre Rancho Rosa de Castilla. After annexation to LA, the city built a 1910 dam and reservoir (still there but covered behind DWP gates) at the east end. From 1924-1936, the hills overlooked Legion Ascot Speedway. Famous—the best drivers of the day raced there and the speedway was featured in 1930s films "Burn 'em Up Barnes" and "Red Hot Tires"—but deadly. (A speedway employee, sick of the two dozen deaths, burned down the stands in 1936 and that was the end of that.) Today the hills are a natural habitat lined with trails from simple and flat to steep and challenging. Barbara and I counted ten trails we could see, each dotted with hikers and dog-walkers. The trail we followed offered everything from wildlife to awe: A bunny, lots of lizards, birds, and one huge hawk kept an eye on us. Whispering oaks and cattails framed the shady path we took before winding up dusty trails to the payoff at the top—a 360 view of the city. Ascot Hills Park was the perfect hike for the first, full, no-sweat, blue-sky day of Autumn. Lovely!

Barbara and I drove 30 miles north up the 5 and the 14 to the "rock star" location of Charles Fleming's hike in the October 14, 2017, Los Angeles Times. This amazing park merits its standing on the National Register of Historic Places as a prehistoric site for the Shoshone and Tatavian peoples from 200BC to the 18th century (we saw their pictographs along the trail,) but the rock formations date back 25-33.9 million years. Of all the places Barbara and I have hiked, at this one you can feel the history—knowing those towering rocks have been here for eons, through Indians, outlaw folklore, a century of motion pictures, and contemporary hikers like us, and will remain here long after we've come and gone. The scenery is downright breathtaking—repeated "wows" dominated our conversation, and our photos barely do it justice. Named for Tiburcio Vasquez, ladies man and California bandido who used the rocks as a hideout to evade capture circa 1870. Meanwhile, in 1862, miner William Henry King filed a claim on the property through the Homestead Act, put up tourist cabins, and eventually rented out the area as a film location—its first role, Tibet in 1935's Werewolf of London. King's idea made the rocks into Rock Stars. Vasquez Rocks' resumé includes setting or walk-on roles for hundreds of films, TV shows, commercials, and videos. You may recognize it as the alien planet in the Star Trek episode "Arena," or from Blazing Saddles, Planet of the Apes, Westworld, Nike commercials, Outer Limits, Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video, the A-Team, McGyver, Friends, New Girl, and more, more, more. With several hiking options to choose from, we followed Fleming's map along the Nature-Heritage Trail and around the "Kirk's Rock" to a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail (that runs from the Mexican border to British Columbia), and back down the Geology Trail. Signs marking plants, views, and points of interest along the way kept us on the path. Sometimes flat, sometimes catch-your-breath hilly and rocky, always "wow"-amazing. One of the most awe-inspiring areas to hike in SoCal. Will-go-back-memorable. 

Not as much of a trail as a delightful hike through a small, yet utterly charming neighborhood that popped up at the turn of the 19th century when Angelino urbanites headed to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Arcadia and below the southern edge of Angeles National Forest, for hiking and camping getaways. The great naturalist John Muir, "father of national parks" and founder of the Sierra Club, inspired the recreational use of the mountains and the "great hiking era" that lasted from the 1880s to the 1930s depression. Twenty-first-century gals that we are, thank God we didn't have to hike in the long woolen skirts of our 19th century predecessors. Guided by Charles Fleming's post in the October 24, 2015 issue of the Los Angeles Times, we started at the historic Lizzie's Trail Inn at the foot of the Mt. Wilson trail. Instead of hiking into the mountains, Fleming guided us east into a foothill community of tree-covered roads, stone walls, and turn of the century homes. Covered bridges, open bridges, and private bridges that served as driveways, cross a stoney creek running through the neighborhood and along sites of former resorts like the 1906 Carter's Camp (you can almost tell which current homes used to be camp cottages or summer retreats.) A circuitous path through streets led us to a tiny village of two buildings adding to the 1920s atmosphere of the area: Stevenson Store (a 1913 Sierra Madre Historical Landmark) and 1922's Mary's Market, a café that was open for business as we passed through. The city of Sierra Madre, "historically linked to the old mountain resorts", pioneered late 19th century summer resorts. If you're into hiking unusual neighborhoods, everything about this hike and this neighborhood evokes a summer resort feel. Made me want to go to camp. Fetching, as the old-timers would say.