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Tons of rock and earth cascaded onto a thoroughfare in Topanga Canyon this winter, cutting the area off from the rest of the Westside. Amid the challenges, Bluedot Living founder Victoria Riskin found a bright side — access to nature that would otherwise be difficult to find.
Updated, Friday, May 31, 2024 *
Torrential rains pounded the hillsides of Los Angeles this year and caused dozens of landslides, including one that cut off the throughway — Topanga Canyon Boulevard — from Topanga Canyon to Pacific Coast Highway. Over nine million tons of rock and earth careened onto the road. It made me wonder whether these kinds of heavy downpours might become routine events in the canyons as the climate changes.
The disruption for Topanga Canyon residents, shop owners, and visitors has been challenging. Those who work or go to school in the Palisades or Santa Monica or on the Westside had to first to the Valley and then navigate the freeways, sometimes adding an hour to their commute. And shopkeepers who rely on a steady stream of weekend customers — hikers and bikers and shoppers — have been anxious and scrambling.
But people who live in Topanga are a scrappy bunch who long ago adjusted to nature’s challenges of fires and flooding, a small price to pay for rural living with horses, backyard trails, and beautiful vistas in the surrounding Topanga State Park. And in the aftermath of this most recent natural disaster, my niece Nora, a Topanga resident, noticed something new and magical happening, a silver lining — or, should I say, green lining.
She saw the return of nature she hadn’t seen in years, with the trees and plant life vibrant and lush from the the rains and a calm and quiet that stood in stark contrast to the usual noise of the heavily trafficked thoroughfare. Wildlife was reappearing. So along with her husband, Walt, son Wiley and best friend, Allisum, Nora decided to venture out on a hike she'd never taken before, a trek to the Time Travel Tunnel.
“It was amazing,” Nora says. “You could walk along the road without worrying about cars, the dog along with us, and roam into places I’ve always wanted to explore, like the Time Travel Tunnel that’s pretty dangerous to get to when there’s traffic.”
The Time Travel Tunnel is actually a storm drain accessible only via an unmarked slope off a narrow Topanga Canyon Boulevard curve and requires hikers to tromp into overgrown thickets and over rocky terrain before they can even see it. Over the years, the outside and inside of the Time Travel Tunnel have been painted by graffiti artists whose combined work reminds me of Basquiat — vibrant, chaotic, and raw. One imagines that hippies camped in the tunnel to have time-tripping experiences and were artist contributors.
Those who enter the storm drain see the distant light at the other end, an opening that welcomes them to a hike deeper into the woods, where they can search for a magical grotto with rushing streams and waterfalls of breathtaking beauty.
“Birds were loud and happy,” Nora says. “The sounds of the frogs are really loud and people say they haven’t heard them in years.” Along the way they found a swing on a tree with the seat made from an old skateboard, and Nora was suddenly a kid again.
Perhaps the secret of the Time Travel Tunnel is that those who hike their way to the grotto experience a deep connection with nature if they stay a while, and then Time expands to Timelessness. Nature has a way of calming our urgency and soothing our spirits. The road closure, despite the disruption, is an opportunity, if taken. The Time Travel Tunnel is only one of the many places to hike to in Topanga State Park, which, according to the All Trails website page for Topanga, boasts 56 trails to where hikers can discover the wildflowers and butterflies that are out and about.
And the Canyon businesses, restaurants, and shops could use friendly faces of Angelenos, too. There are dozens of wonderful establishments owned by locals, many dedicated to sustainable practices, who would appreciate visitors. Some favorites are the elegant, locally sourced restaurant The Inn of the Seventh Ray and shops like The Well Refill, The Moonstar Collective, Hidden Treasures and the Topanga Creek Outpost.
And the storied history of the Canyon as a place where some of America’s greatest music talent — Neil Young, Jim Morrison, Mick Fleetwood, the Doors, and Joni Mitchell, to name just a few — jammed and hung out, makes it fun to wander down memory lane of bygone days, the spirit of which is still around. In most respects, Topanga Canyon never changes.
As for Nora and Walt, they now sometimes take an even longer trip to work in Santa Monica (they own McCabe’s Guitar Store), heading north to Ferndale to enjoy the especially beautiful vistas.
*On Friday, May 31, Topanga Canyon Boulevard reopened — months ahead of schedule.
