{"id":11084,"date":"2025-09-28T00:25:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?p=11084"},"modified":"2025-09-28T00:25:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:25:58","slug":"la-river-and-secret-stairs-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/misc\/la-river-and-secret-stairs-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"LA River and Secret Stairs tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On my last day in Los Angeles I took a walking tour of the LA River and Elysian Valley<\/a>. The area covered is roughly between Silver Lake and the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When most people think of the LA River today — if they think about it at all — they tend to think of a dry concrete half-pipe used as a location for filming movies and music videos. While this is true, it’s not the whole truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Los Angeles the river provided a source of water for drinking and growing food. However, it wasn’t particularly great for either purpose as the water was inconsistent at best; sometimes it would slow to a trickle, and every so often it would flood the entire area. The land being mostly flat meant that these floods could wash away entire neighborhoods as the river changed course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As LA began to grow in the early 20th century, the Army Corps of Engineers tamed the river with the concrete trench it’s known for today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tour starts at a part of the river that notably isn’t<\/em> dry, and having been partly reclaimed by nature now serves as a recreation area for the neighborhood with parks and a bike path running alongside it. Much of this is only possible thanks to a large-scale volunteer effort to remove the garbage that had piled up in the river over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the tour winds through Elysian Valley (also known as Frogtown) many of the streets turn into steep staircases. These “secret” stairs have homes along them that aren’t accessible by any other means. One imagines that working as a USPS postal carrier in the area would negate any need to own a StairMaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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