Adventures at the Old LA Zoo, or: The day I went hiking in heels

offbeat frontier trip

Hillary, Drew, Mike, Nathan, and Megan.

Last Sunday I once again ventured outside of the hobbit hole that I now refer to as “the Offbeat Bride LA office” and joined up with the other offbeat crew in my life… Offbeat Frontier.

From the Offbeat Frontier website:

What is the Offbeat Frontier? …Offbeat Frontier is the constant search for humanities greatest achievements that have been almost forgotten. This group is here for adventure or simply hangout with some good friends for a few hours. The mission is to find strange and odd tourist attractions around Southern California. What do we do when we find them? We take pictures with them, gawk at their magnificence, marvel at whatever the hell I’m looking at. We’re in search of tourist attractions and odd monuments of humanity and consumerism.

So my first (of hopefully many) adventures with Offbeat Frontier was going to Griffith Park to find and explore the ruins of the Old Los Angeles Zoo. The original zoo opened at just south of the present one in 1913. (For more fun OG Zoo info check out this blog post.)

I was so excited to be getting out of the house in into the beautiful California sunshine that I used this opportunity to dress up and get fancy. Well, as fancy as I get. Which meant taking the opportunity to wear heels and my new skirt! I mean, I even waxed my legs and everything!

I wore the same pair of heels that I wore when I went on a six hour walking tour of downtown, and they were totally comfortable. And I figured that we’d be walking over paved sidewalks and shit, so I didn’t see a problem with wearing them.

Of course what I didn’t know was that there would be hiking involved. Mike, the man behind Offbeat Frontier, didn’t know exactly where the old zoo ruins were located. He had the inkling to head north. So I broke out my iphone compass app and north we headed! Of course heading north meant hiking up and down a giant hill.

offbeat frontier trip

This is me being wholly unprepared.

Dude, hiking in heels is total bullshit. DO NOT DO IT. Not that ANYONE in their right mind would try this on purpose. I was the idiot who was totally unprepared. But, actually, my heels were a lot more hiking friendly than flats — the girl who wore flats was slipping and sliding all over the place while I just dug in my heels (literally) and tried not to break my ankles.

Of course after hiking up and down this great big hill, we came through the other side to find the ruins! With a children’s birthday party being celebrated in them…
offbeat frontier: old LA zoo
Turns out there was a paved walkway that lead right to them! We hiked for no bloody reason! Oh well, it makes for a good story anyway.

After the “perilous” hike we dug in and started investigating the ruins — crawling in and out of the old cages, acting like animals and taking pictures like mad…

offbeat frontier trip offbeat frontier: old LA zoo
Hiking in heels.

offbeat frontier: old LA zoo

Offbeat Frontier trip

offbeat frontier: old LA zoo
The graffiti inside the enclosures was awesome! We loved the way it photographed…

offbeat frontier trip

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Nathan & Drew in this crazy weird staircase that lead to a dead end.

offbeat frontier trip
This was literally the way out.

offbeat frontier: old LA zoo offbeat frontier: old LA zoo
This is my cousin Nathan behaving like an animal.

offbeat frontier: old LA zoo

LA Zoo Ruins offbeat frontier: old LA zoo

offbeat frontier trip

offbeat frontier: old LA zoo offbeat frontier: old LA zoo

offbeat frontier trip

offbeat frontier trip offbeat frontier trip

offbeat frontier trip
Finally after hours of hiking and exploring we called it quits and went and got beer! Glorious beer!

offbeat frontier trip
And made it a point to get a group photo. From L to R: Ashley, Mike, Hillary, Nathan, Drew, Megan = The Zoo Crew!

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5 Comments

  1. Alex

    Hiking in heels builds calves and character! For some reason the link for the offbeat frontier blogspot is not working for me.

    good stuff!

    • Ha! “builds calves and character” — I love it! Also, I checked out the Offbeat Frontier link and it’s working on my end. How strange. But thanks for letting me know!

  2. Nick walked in while I was reading this, and hid behind me. He says it’s “Not the real Megan” with the pink hair! Too funny.

    Love the heels. But OUCH!!

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