Category Archives: Writing: Travel: USA

Hiking Los Angeles: Fish Canyon, With that New Car Smell

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Benjamin Simpson

     Fish Canyon is open, and the waterfalls are flowing.      I want to write that first line in all BOLD CAPS.      Because that hasn’t been said in 30 years.      Fish Canyon, in the San Gabriel Mountains above … Continue reading →

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Hiking Los Angeles: Abandoned Dawn Mine

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Benjamin Simpson

      There are three ways to hike to the abandoned Dawn Mine above Altadena: the first is closed, the second is over-grown, but the third, in a metaphorical bear sense, is just right.       John W. Robinson, in his book … Continue reading →

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Fort Irwin’s Painted Rocks

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Benjamin Simpson

     They went and put the military base in the middle of nowhere, hidden between the low rocky hills and the wide open dry lake beds of the Southern California deserts, probably because they wanted to blow things up in … Continue reading →

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Touring Los Angeles: The Crumbling Hermon Car Wall

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Benjamin Simpson

     After randomly hearing about a wall built with car parts in Los Angeles, it took me five months to find Hermon’s Car Wall, and, well, it was partly worth it.      After five months of (very intermittent) searching, there … Continue reading →

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Los Angeles Event: Touring the Old Theatre District

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Benjamin Simpson

Touring the Historic Los Angeles Theatre District      “There’s one million square feet of unused space in downtown Los Angeles,” said Larry, our tour guide, as we walked up and down Broadway, the old heart of the theatre district.      … Continue reading →

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Eleven Photographs: Hood Ornaments at the Nethercutt Museum

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Benjamin Simpson

I thought that the Peterson was the only Los Angeles automotive museum. I was wrong. Hidden away in the San Fernando Valley, in a nondescript building, in a nondescript neighborhood, sits a free museum with some of the most beautiful … Continue reading →

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Cabrillo National Monument; San Diego, California

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Benjamin Simpson

     The Cabrillo National Monument is beautiful, but the name is deceiving. It’s considered a monument because there is a statue of Cabrillo here, but this area should really be called The Cabrillo State Park, or The Cabrillo Ecological Reserve. … Continue reading →

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San Diego’s Chicano Park: History in Murals and Concrete

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Benjamin Simpson

     I went to San Diego’s Chicano Park to see the beautiful murals. What I found is a park that is beautiful, but not in the way parks are traditionally beautiful. Its beauty is not in huge expanses of rolling … Continue reading →

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Walking with Alligators Outside New Orleans [Part 2]

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Benjamin Simpson

Southern Drawl      It seems that warm water is the defining characteristic of New Orleans. Water in the swamps, water in the Mississippi river, water flooding houses, water falling from the sky in bucket loads, and water thickening the air … Continue reading →

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Walking With Alligators Outside New Orleans [Part 1]

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Benjamin Simpson

     One afternoon while sitting in a bar in the French Quarter -nursing an Abita Amber- I over-heard a snippet of a conversation that went like this: “…and you can walk through the swamps with the alligators.”      Which was … Continue reading →

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On The Road to Poppies: Lancaster, California [Part 2]

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Benjamin Simpson

     After we found the cherry trees, I had a better understanding of how the map worked, so we decided to backtrack to the Polaroid house.     “So the house was built by Mr. Polaroid?”     “Yea Mr. Polaroid, the guy who … Continue reading →

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On The Road to Poppies: Lancaster, California [Part 1]

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Benjamin Simpson

     I woke up Saturday morning with itchy feet. I wanted to get out and do something, something outside, in the sun with life around and about. But I was supposed to sit in front of my computer and edit … Continue reading →

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