Your guide to L.A.’s canyons

On a clear day, few drives can compare to Latigo Canyon Road. With sweeping ocean and mountain views—and less traffic than you’ll find on Kanan Dume Road, the massive bypass built decades later—it’s one of Malibu’s twistiest, curviest country roads, and it leads right to dining, hikes and Malibu Wines (pictured), one of the city’s top vineyards, among other key spots to sip. Here’s how to maximize your wine time.

After pulling onto Latigo from the Pacific Coast Highway, kick-start your metabolism with a bit of hiking before you hit the region’s wine hubs. Try the Backbone Trailhead, which even sports free parking.

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. 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. 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. Bring some sunscreen and comfortable shoes, and say hi to Stanley for us.

Across 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. 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.

In L.A.’s most mercurial canyon, the shade of the hills gives way to golden sunlight. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

Today, you’ll find more light than dark in this canyon. A burgeoning film festival, new cafés and an influx of artists have added more magic than mayhem to this region. Here’s how to experience Topanga, old and new.

As stunning as the drive through the canyon may be, some of Topanga’s most awe-inducing scenery is best enjoyed on foot. Topanga State Park is home to 36 miles of trails, with treks past forests and up mountain peaks featuring panoramic views of the Pacific. Trading four wheels for two? Outdoor-adventure store Topanga Creek Outpost offers bike rentals that include helmets and maps of nearby routes (we recommend Deerhill Trail). You can even rent GoPro cameras to document your ride.

Topanga’s hippie vibes are alive and well at Bouboulina. This roadside boho boutique of nearly 40 years peddles a rainbow of flowy clothing, such as floral wrap dresses, tie-dyed loungewear and floor-length skirts, not to mention an impressive collection of Native American jewelry. Minimalists should hit Dust and Fog, a chic vintage store focusing on neutral colors and timeless pieces. Just around the bend is the quirky, bric-a-brac–scattered Hidden Treasures, a vintage shop with an eclectic collection of clothing dating from the Victorian era to the 1980s. For global home goods, look for neighboring pop-ups by Luv and Sunshine at local spots like Topanga Living Cafe, selling colorful collection of hanging rugs. 

Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, a Topanga fixture since 1973, brings classic and contemporary pieces to life on an open-air stage. This year’s season included a Woody Guthrie retrospective, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but the stage also hosts regular children’s and adults’ theatre workshops and drama camps. Elsewhere in Topanga, look for screenings of locally made movies and familiar favorites, thanks to the annual Topanga Film Festival.

The ridiculously romantic Inn of the Seventh Ray sits creekside and has a health-minded menu and rustic charm in spades. Farther north is Cafe 27, an organic spin on the American diner that’s big on breakfast and brunch with a side of treetop dining, then spins to a worldly to-go menu in the evening, with options like Indian curries, Thai soups and Spanish patatas bravas. If you’re looking for another casual, colorful stop, try Topanga Living Cafe, a brother-and-sister–owned restaurant and smoothie bar that sports a patio built right against a canyon wall. Searching for a piece of Topanga to take home? You can always stop by Canyon Gourmet (pictured), a hidden gem of a modern food mart tucked into a strip mall and stocked with house-made pastas and locally sourced honey, chocolate, produce, baked goods, granola and more.

Each and every morning when the sun is high,
I hunt around the canyon till I find a place to lie.
It’s so beautiful to be alone, got the sun and trees and silence.
I’m in my Laurel Canyon home.
—John Mayall, “Laurel Canyon Home”

Travel the world and you’ll find few neighborhoods with the mystique—and the music history—of Laurel Canyon. The Hollywood Hills and the slowly swaying eucalyptus trees seem to protect the peaceful neighborhood’s residents from the posh bedlam of West Hollywood below. In the 1960s and ’70s, this solitude and natural beauty drew the likes of Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, John Mayall, the Byrds, Neil Young, Carole King and other artists, transforming the area into a hub for the counterculture and folk-rock movements.

Traffic snakes slowly up the still-spirited Laurel Canyon Boulevard, past narrow, curving offshoots that dead-end in shaded enclaves for hilly homes, and past the nexus of the canyon, The Canyon Country Store. Arguably the most famous corner mart in music history, it’s “the store where the creatures meet” (the Doors’ “Love Street”), where Mama Cass Elliot allegedly crashed in the basement for a time, and where Father John Misty met his wife, Emma Elizabeth Tillman (“I Went to the Store One Day”). Behind it, Pace keeps pace with the locals, offering organic Italian fare in a rustic and red-hued low-lit setting that, while newer than the canyon’s folk-rock and Old Hollywood roots, still manages to capture their bygone glamour.

But please, be mindful: These are now other people’s private residences.

Jim Morrison’s digs (8021 Rothdell Trail) behind the Canyon Country Store, where he penned the lyrics to the breezy “Love Street”

Joni Mitchell’s Laurel Canyon residence (8217 Lookout Mountain), where Graham Nash composed “Our House” and Mitchell wrote much of her album Ladies of the Canyon

The allegedly haunted home and music studio (2451 Laurel Canyon Blvd), known simply as “The Mansion,” where Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and others visited and recorded throughout the years. Today, it’s owned by music producer Rick Rubin.

Photograph of Mitchell in her Laurel Canyon abode courtesy Henry Diltz and Morrison Hotel Gallery

Malibu Canyon Road—called Las Virgenes in some stretches—climbs through the mountains and alongside Malibu Creek, past Mulholland Highway and down a steep, winding slope to the 101 freeway in Calabasas. This two-lane road offers glimpses of sun-streaked hills, cavernous ravines and towering peaks, but pull over to get up close and personal with the scenery and the wildlife, even if just for an outdoor movie.

It’s hard to miss the canyon’s breathtaking views, but take full advantage of them by turning onto Piuma Road for the Malibu Canyon Overlook—and get those cameras and selfie sticks ready. Malibu Creek State Park, an 8,200-acre preserve, boasts free guided hikes and 15 miles of creekside trails, plus a tranquil rock pool, volcanic fields, a lake and campgrounds. This is also where you’ll find the iconic M*A*S*H set, still standing decades after the show filmed there, and though it was ravaged by the Woolsey Fire, the community helped to rebuild some of the show’s iconography—including the signpost. 

Leave your shoes at the foot of the stunning Malibu Hindu Temple for a picnic, meditation, tour or puja (prayer) service in this peaceful, scenic environment.

Cinephiles can grab a blanket and enjoy one of Street Food Cinema’s outdoor screenings at King Gillette Ranch from summer through fall, cuddling under the stars and snacking on food-truck fare wile watching films like Dirty Dancing and Back to the Future. Nearby, opt for wild game in a hunting-inspired setting at Saddle Peak Lodge, an Old Hollywood retreat turned rugged-elegant restaurant tucked into the hills.

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. But you’re still squarely within county limits in this Sierra Madre neighborhood—in fact, you’re barely 10 minutes north of Arcadia’s cluster of dumpling and dim-sum joints.

The community in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains serves as a launching point for the Mt. Wilson Trail, a grueling six-mile climb to the summit of one of the tallest peaks in the area—but if you don't feel like walking, this one is usually open to horseback riding, too. Look for the trailhead just past Lizzie’s Trail Inn, a charming 1890s pit stop turned museum.

Any visit to the area should include a trip to Mary’s Market. Easy-to-follow rules are clearly posted at this friendly café: “No whining, use your best manners and only one curmudgeon in the market at a time.” If you’re setting a course for a dead-end canyon road, the food better be worth it, and Mary’s all-day breakfast menu delivers (go for the Gio, which has eggs, cheese, turkey, tomato, spinach and avocado on an everything bagel).

Take a seat at the countertop or the tiny patio, or peruse the wall of jam, condiments and “old-n-new useful junk,” as a sign describes the wares. When you order, if you  mention that it’s your first visit, you may even get a free cookie. Just up the road, the members-only Nature Friends leads hikes and picnics from its three-story cottage. —Michael Juliano

Up, up, up along Mulholland sits Cornell, a quiet, scenic, easy-breezy community and one of L.A.’s best-kept secrets for weekend getaways and peaceful living.

The gem of the area is the Old Place, a charming and live-fire–cooking restaurant where stepping inside is like entering a portal into another century: a walk through saloon doors and into the Wild-West outpost of our dreams. The rustic, all-wood cabin feels part Western, part colonial, and serves some serious comfort food enjoyed at small booths or a communal bar. The most popular meals here are brunch and dinner, when hearty steaks and comforting sides like baked potatoes are the go-to order for almost everyone in the place.

Next door, the charming Cornell Winery is a tasting room that celebrates wines sourced from L.A. to Monterey, with tasting flights, bottles and local retail goods galore. Adirondack chairs are scattered outside, where you can take in the scenery or hear some occasional live music or pop over to Old Truck Coffee, the rustic third-wave coffee shop hiding in a repurposed truck in the back of the Old Place.