Comments (0) Best Place to LARP an Episode of “Scooby Doo” (1912) - 2010

Old Griffith Park Zoo

Tucked away in a secluded canyon in the park beckons the old Griffith Park Zoo, a quiet haven of peace and high-quality strangeness. Built in 1912, the old zoo is several acres of grimy, dark cages set amid boulder-lined grottoes once home to lions, tigers, bears, etc. (The animal collection eventually outgrew the site and the zoo moved to its current spot in the northeast corner of the park.) There’s a perversely enjoyable sense of obsolescence and abandonment here that blends well with one’s very own, and as the only sounds are birdsong and the hushed trickling of a small stream nearby, there’s something calmly resonant about it all, a kind of frisson — albeit a spooky one. Stroll about and think your thoughts (during the week is best), curl up with a book on the grass, do your yoga bits, meditate, sleep ... In Griffith Park, off Griffith Park Drive just north of the merry-go-round and west of the Wilson golf course. —John Payne