O'Melveny Park to Bee Canyon

At the very northernmost reach of the City of Los Angeles, O'Melveny Park, 2nd largest in the city according to the plaque, is the point of departure and unmarked, as far as I could see, trial head for Bee Canyon.  Bee Canyon Park is just a block south of the parking lot of O'Melveny Park where a nature trail and paved road edged with rock leads up into the ravines of Bee Canyon.
In these times, traffic to the valley from the arts district is minimal which makes driving to hiking areas we would not normally trek to much less time consuming.
In Afoot and Afield in Los Angeles County, the author asserts Bee Canyon to be "natural L.A.'s answer to Disneyland's Adventureland." Having never been to DA, I could not compare the two. But, I was awed by the steep V shaped gorges, windswept rock formations and the height of the 500 ft. peaks viewed from the canyon floor.

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Along the winding, main paved path, there are numerous picnic tables and a large lawn to frolic on  with your furry friend. I can imagine a simple but ample ranch home, O'Melveny's prize bulldogs and grazing cattle on this site. When the paved road turns to dirt, you have the option to take the trail to the west, traversing the gradient switchbacks, or go forward along a much narrower path.  We chose the narrower one because it looked less traveled. We did pass a few groups of fellow hikers but after a while we did not hear any one with their music and chatter- the silence was truly golden. 
Aiming to walk to directly underneath the power lines that stretched across the canyon high above, we hopped across the gullies and stream beds for about a half a mile until Tim stopped suddenly.  A snake, about an inch in diameter and possibly 18 inches long, lay  across the path in the sun.  Our dog Jet did not even see it.  It was quite still and did not move when we got a little closer look for inspection. Deciding to turn around in favor of stepping over the unidentified snake, which we later learned was a gopher snake from posting it on my timeline on Facebook, we settled on making our way back to the car by way of the same route. 

What is wondrous about Bee Canyon are the peaks and shear mountain sides on which you can imagine goats scampering or mountain lions laying wait in caves. There are even narrower trails that lead up into the ravines but the Afoot and Afield guidebook states: "the cliffs are unstable and not suitable for climbing."
Getting out in nature is vital to reboot our sense of calm and collectivity-especially living downtown where muscle car and motorcycle pipes rev, fireworks explode without the visuals, circling helicopters hum and blaring sirens are the ambient noise all day and all night.