Biking and the Ruins of the Old Zoo

A couple of Saturdays ago we decided to go on a mini adventure.  We loaded our bikes up on a very old bike rack and made the semi-treacherous trip down to Griffith Park.  Our bike rack is the rack we used when I was younger.  I told Sean the rack lasted a trip to Idaho but I dont think that made him feel any more comfortable heading onto the freeway. I do admit it was a little nerve wracking looking back to see our bikes bobble up and down.  We made it to Griffith Park in one piece without loosing any pieces. 

 

Sean's become a pro assembling our old school rack!

We decided that we would head south along the Los Angeles River.  Of course the river isn't very pretty but there was some very interesting sites along the way.  We saw a random grocery cart sitting in the middle of the river, homeless(?) people washing in the river and crowds of every demographic riding along the path.  It was really interesting to ride right along the freeway.  The traffic into Griffith Park was almost at a standstill so I was really tempted to say "hi" to the people who had their windows down.  Sean would have been too embarrassed so I didn't. 

This was the final location for one of the seasons of The Amazing Race

We biked to Los Feliz where we crossed over into Griffith Park.  It was a little bit of an uphill but nothing too bad.  It was a very warm, sunny day--perfect to be outside.  We found a nice grassy place to pull out our picnic.

One of my main objectives was to visit the Old Zoo.  I remember seeing an episode of America's Next Top Model filmed there and I heard it was a really cool place to visit.  What I didn't expect was the crowds!  I think it was the most crowded part of the entire park!  There were many different parties going on, a private photo shoot, family outings and some sort of Mascot get-together.   There were a couple of different old cages that you could explore.  I really wanted to know what those cages housed.  I would love to find an old map of this zoo but a search on the internet yielded no results.  There was a sign near the cages that explained that one reason why the cages were left "as is" was to educate the public on the advancement of zoological sciences.  The cages and conditions were a lot more primitive than what we see today at zoos.  No wonder people were all up in arms about how the animals were treated!  We tried to explore off the beaten path but couldn't find any more ruins.  We'll save that for a time when we didn't have to lug around bikes. 

I loved how this party was inside the enclosed area, awesome!

This area had an amazing view of Glendale.

The archaeologist in me loved this place!  Our society doesn't have many ruins so I got to take advantage of what I can!

These were some hardcore cages!

I seriously need to find a map and find out what animals were here.

This was the funniest thing!  There was some sort of Mascot get together because there were about 2 dozen furry people walking around (very casually I might add).

It was a quick trip back to our car but before we got there we found some deer just chillin' on the side of the road.  It was kinda ironic because I kept seeing the deer crossing signs and was thinking to myself, "I have never seen deer here-there cant possible be deer living in the middle of LA!"  Well I ate my words because there were 3 of them just chillin right next to the road.

I didn't get a good picture but if you look closely you'll see at least 2.

Our trip was sort of impromptu but it was a blast!  We cant wait to go back and explore some more!