The hook
The original Los Angeles Zoo closed in 1966 and was just left there, so now you can climb through the empty bear grottos and picnic inside the old cages, free, in the middle of Griffith Park.
01Why it's worth it
Los Angeles built its first zoo in Griffith Park in 1912 and ran it until 1966, when the animals moved to the new LA Zoo across the park and nobody bothered to tear the old one down. What's left is a hillside of abandoned enclosures: the stone grottos and fake-rock caves the WPA built in the 1930s, the barred cages, the corrals, the hidden stairways, all weathering slowly under the oaks. The city eventually turned it into a free picnic area, so there are grills and tables bolted inside the old animal dens, and you're welcome to walk straight into the bear caves. Actors rehearse Shakespeare up here, kids scramble the ruins, and it stays one of the strangest and most peaceful corners of Griffith Park, tucked below the trails everyone else is hiking.
02How to experience it
It's the Old Zoo Picnic Area in Griffith Park, reachable on foot from the merry-go-round lot or off the Bee Rock Trail. Free, open in daylight. Poke into every enclosure and up the stairways, since half the fun is the ones people miss. Pair it with the Observatory or any Griffith Park hike.