Los Angeles: Abandoned Zoo in Griffith Park

When choosing to go find the abandoned Griffith Park Zoo in Griffith Park, I was under the impression that it would be some kind of strenuous hike. It was not. 

In fact, the hardest part of the whole thing was going the wrong direction for a bit after parking our car, when we should have just headed straight for the open park to the right, where there also happened to be a Shakespeare performance happening. 

As we were wandering up the right path, Whitney noticed the cages to our left. They were literally just right there. There's even picnic tables where the animals once roamed/stood (because there's not a ton of room for roaming). No extreme trail or even really any hiking at all. You just walk up the path and you can see all the old cages. You can go inside the cages if you want. Some areas are gated off. But there's easy openings in the fence if you really have the desire. I can imagine this would be a creepy place to be at night. 

Going up a little further, following the path that winds behind the stone cages, we ran into an abandoned little building/facility that I presume might have been a maintenance keeper's storage or something. It was completely graffitied on the inside. It ended up being a really cool vibe to photograph though.

Just a bit farther than that are some metal cages. We climbed and walked on top of them. I can't imagine animals living in these things because they're so small, but I guess that was part of the controversy of this zoo. 

The park opened in 1912 and closed in 1966, before the opening of the current Los Angeles Zoo. It has since become a historical archive of this part of Griffith Park and it's residents, and picnic area, as well as a setting in the movie "Anchorman".

If you choose, you can still go on a nice hike. There's a bunch of trails in Griffith Park. I personally love the night hikes. Or you can have a picnic, and take a ride on the Merry-Go-Round.

We left shortly after to go to one of my favorite Los Angeles spots: Griffith Observatory (coming up next ;) ).