Hiking Photos

Griffith Park - Old Zoo Picnic Area

4730 Crystal Springs Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90027

In a quiet area of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, you can picnic in a bear grotto and climb inside abandoned monkey cages. If you have ever wondered what you appear like to the animals in the zoo, this abandoned LA zoo is your chance to find out.

The site of the first Los Angeles zoo, the zoo opened in 1912 with 15 animals. Many of the enclosures were built in the 1930’s by Works Progress Administration crews and were made in the iron bars/pacing animal style that was standard for zoo's of that era. The zoo was abandoned in 1966 when the current zoo opened.

Today the cave enclosures have now been outfitted with picnic benches and grills. A trail leading up from the caves gives you a zookeeper’s view of the lion’s den and leads to ever more abandoned cages, and giving one an eerie feeling of what it is like to be on the other side of the bars.

Griffith Park - Old Zoo Picnic Area

4730 Crystal Springs Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA, 90027