![]() ![]() The cobblestone-lined brook and cabinlike houses make this leafy enclave feel like the sort of folksy mountain outpost you’d expect to find far from Los Angeles. Here’s how to experience Topanga, old and new. A burgeoning film festival, new cafés and an influx of artists have added more magic than mayhem to this region. Today, you’ll find more light than dark in this canyon. From the blacklisting of actor Will Geer, and the declining health of his friend Woody Guthrie, grew a theater company that became a pillar of the community. In the late ’60s, Neil Young recorded After the Gold Rush in Topanga, while around the same time, his neighbor Charles Manson claimed a victim down the road. Topanga is famed for its tall oaks, bohemian sensibilities and secluded homes-and infamous for Sandstone Retreat, a groundbreaking (but now-shuttered) free-love nudist colony. There’s an undeniable air of dark and light here, where hippie utopia and one of the country’s most artistic communities shared a mountain range with murder and overdose. It streams through outstretched branches and dapples the handful of shops, hiking trails, restaurants and the length of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, which connects the Pacific Coast Highway to Woodland Hills. In L.A.’s most mercurial canyon, the shade of the hills gives way to golden sunlight. Cap off your trip down the road at Malibu Cafe at Calamigos Ranch, and don’t even think about leaving without pit-smoked BBQ from this country-themed outdoor bar and restaurant. Bring some sunscreen and comfortable shoes, and say hi to Stanley for us.Īcross Mulholland, Malibu Wines is currently closed for its usual tastings, mimosa-filled yoga classes and movie screenings on its scenic patio, but you can find its other outpost, the beer garden, on the other side of the canyon in West Hills. Saddlerock also hosts alfresco, organic farm dinners by Saddlerock Gardens (above), and Malibu Wine Hikes loops you through the vineyards and animal stables, before the walk culminates in-what else?-a wine tasting. This sprawling site is home to Malibu Wine Safaris, where wine tastings meet open-air tours that feature zebras, camels, alpacas, bison and Stanley the giraffe. Get back on the road and head north until you reach Kanan and Mulholland Highway, then make a beeline for vino with a side of memorable experiences at Saddlerock Ranch. We just thought that was a nice analogy for what we wanted our coffee to do: bring people together, concentrate energy in the middle.” When we were developing what we wanted our brand to be, we thought of how canyons concentrate energy in the middle. That was really the foundation of our relationship: We just spent time up there. ![]() It’s really a creative place, and all my friends who live there agree that it has this certain kind of energy that’s conducive to creativity and making things. That ethos of what has become our company really got its roots in that environment I was living in Beachwood when we met. There’s this sense of being a little removed from the city and a little more in nature, and that sense of almost solitude made it even more special for us to be able to wake up together and have our own morning and not feel the hustle and bustle of the city. “One of the best parts about that canyon is, you’re in heavy traffic on Franklin, then you turn onto Beachwood and every quarter mile you go up, you just breathe easier. Here, Wojtalewicz talks about Beachwood’s allure and inspiration: So, fill up your gas tank and head for the hills-it may look like home to you, too.Ĭasey Wojtalewicz, right, and Ally Walsh fell in love with coffee, Beachwood and each other almost simultaneously, eventually partnering to launch their bagged-bean company, Canyon Coffee. Even California wildfires and mudslides couldn’t stop the magic of these canyons after the Woolsey Fire swept through in late 2018, the tightknit communities came together to help rebuild, restore and renew their landmarks, shops and neighborhoods. Magic is still hidden around every bend in these mountains, and it’s yours to discover. The era of folk and free love trickled out of the mainstream but never left the canyons. The allure of the canyons is inescapable once your car climbs their well-worn roads. It’s the secluded calm, a haven carved out of the hills above L.A.’s chaos. folk-rock movement growing louder around the razor-sharp curves of the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s the way the light strikes one side of a mountain, how the oaks drape over the two-lane roads and the sound of the coyotes’ soft howl just after sundown. Throughout the past century, Hollywood starlets and folk-rock legends alike found peace and inspiration in L.A.’s canyons, but there’s never been a better time to visit than right now.ĭrive higher, think clearer, breathe deeper.
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