The Arroyo Seco in Pasadena is these days a dry canyon. Before the goverment built the wide concrete channel that runs through it, however, it was, seasonally, a raging waterway that wiped out homes that had been built near what appeared to be a quiet stream for most of the year. After several of these wipe-outs, the city banned home-building near the bottom of the Arroyo and turned it into a park.
The next step was to help Mother Nature restore the plants and trees that originally grew there. And by the 21st Century, the park was designated as one in a chain of parks that extend into downtown Los Angeles.
Today, the Arroyo Seco park is an urban escape–although a very noisy one. Two heavily traveled bridges, one a six-lane monster for the 210 Freeway, the other a quite beautiful span for Colorado Street, mean that even though the paths look peaceful, the noise from the traffic is impossible to escape. But I still love to walk along the paths and here are some of the sights I saw on a recent early morning while the morning rush hour traffic whizzed by above me.
