Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
187
but was always faithfully r ebuilt with low buildings surrounding grassy courtyards. The
aging church was replaced in the 1940s and again in the 1970s after an ear thquake. The
Convento,
a 250-foot-long colonnaded str ucture dating from 1810, is the compound 's
oldest remaining building. Some of the mission's rooms, including the old library and the
private salon of the first bishop of California, hav e been restored to their late-18th-cen-
tury appearance. A half-dozen padres and many hundreds of Shoshone Indians are buried
in the adjacent cemetery.
15151 San F ernando M ission Blv d., M ission H ills.
&
818/361-0186.
w ww.missionscalifornia.com.
Admission $4 adults, $3 seniors and children 7-15, free for kids 6 and under. Daily 9am-4:30pm. From I-5,
exit at San Fernando Mission Blvd. E and drive 5 blocks to the mission.
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel
Founded in 1771, M ission San Gabriel Arcangel
retains its original facade, notable for its high oblong windo ws and large capped but-
tresses said to hav e been influenced b y the cathedral in Cor dova, Spain. The mission's
self-contained compound encompasses an aqueduct, a cemeter y, a tannery, and a work-
ing winery. Within the church stands a copper font with the distinction of being the first
one used to baptiz e a N ative Californian. The most notable contents of the mission 's
museum ar e Native American paintings depicting the S tations of the C ross, done on
sailcloth, with colors made from crushed desert flower petals.
428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel (15 min. south of Pasadena).
&
626/457-3048.
www.sangabrielmission.
org. Admission $5 adults, $4 seniors and students, $3 children ages 6-17, free for kids ages 5 and under.
Daily 9am-4:30pm. Closed holidays.
7
5
L.A. PARKS, GARDENS, VIEWS & ZOOS
PARKS
In addition to the two excellent examples of urban parkland below, check out
Pan Pacific
Park,
a hilly retreat near the Farmers Market and CBS Studios, named for the Art Deco
auditorium that, unfortunately, no longer stands at its edge.
Griffith Park
Mining tycoon Col. Griffith J. Griffith donated these 4,107 acres to the city in 1896 as
a Christmas gift. Today Griffith Park (
&
323/913-4688
) is the largest urban par k in
America. There's a lot to do her e, including 53 miles of hiking trails (the pr ettiest is the
Fern Dell trail
near the Western Ave. entrance, a shady hideaway cooled by waterfalls
and ferns), horseback riding, golfing, swimming, biking, and picnicking (see “Golf, Hik-
ing & Other Fun in the California Sun,” later in this chapter). For a general overview of
the park, drive the mountainous loop road that winds from the top of Western Avenue,
past Griffith O bservatory, and do wn to Vermont Avenue. For a mor e extensiv e foray,
turn north at the loop r oad's midsection, onto M ount Hollywood Drive. To reach the
golf courses, the
Museum of the American West
(p. 168), or
Los Angeles Zoo
(p. 190),
take Los Feliz Boulevard to Riverside Drive, which runs along the park's western edge.
Near the zoo, in a particularly dusty corner of the park, you can find the
Travel Town
Transportation Museum,
5200 Z oo Dr. (
&
323/662-5874
), a little-kno wn outdoor
museum with a small collection of vintage locomotiv es and old airplanes. Kids lo ve the
miniature train ride that cir cles the perimeter of the museum. The museum is open
Monday through Friday from 10am to 4pm, and S aturday and S unday from 10am to
5pm; admission is free.
