Walk #16, Allesandro Loop, Echo Park

Have I mentioned that I love LA.  Today we took a walk in Echo Park, climbing some steep hills and a lot of stairways.  As  we started our walk we met someone delivering for Amazon in the postoffice trucks, he was totally lost. Couldn’t figure out how to get through the maze of winding roads. We were heading up this staircase, before doing so I pulled out my phone and figured out the route for him. Sure enough, we met up at the top of the staircase.  Both he and the package recipient were grateful.  Then when I got home, Amazon delivered a package for me on a Sunday.  That is service.This wooden staircase leads off the public stairs to a private home.  Very creative engineering.This bucolic road is how the delivery man had to drive up.  The  freeway is right underneath us, yes  smack dab in the middle of the city.This is Peru St., the sign for Elmoran st. is still standing although the street itself is blocked off and probably no longer on the map. Unless maybe that was part of the directions our poor delivery man was trying to follow.Some of the Flora we saw along the way. As well as a garden fountain built into a castle.  Someone must have chopped the prickly pear down to this one enormous trunk. Nature at work, new paddles are growing.The crest of the hill afforded us amazing views. I can’t get enough of downtown from any angle.Or the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory.No, I wasn’t tilting my camera. We were up on N. Alvarado. The steep street is Baxter, The top image is facing east and the lower image – west.  The cars were driving down very slowly, riding their brakes the whole way.  The Hills don’t stop old roads, I have no doubt that no city engineer would approve any of the streets in Echo Park today.Two homes, one warning about a dog and the other celebrating both cats and Mickey Mouse.Oak Glen Stairway. One of the few remaining wooden stairs. Most were replaced in the 30’s with concrete, or simply abandoned. As shaky as these were, the next staircase was even more treacherous.First the sign and it’s own artwork. Unfortunately, someone did tag this fence.Here the wooden stairs simply end with a steep, poorly maintained path.There are the stairs behind me, with a big drop between them and the path.Shortly thereafter,  very shallow concrete stairs resumed, with this cute house next to them.Looking back up at the shallow stairs.

As is our tradition after these walks, we found some good tacos for lunch.