Big World, Petite Girl: Murphy Ranch Hike

I am so excited to share my Saturday adventure. 

The boyfriend suggested this great hike that also includes some interesting history. 

Located in Rustic Canyon not far from the Pacific Palisades a little piece of World War II is tucked away in the hills. Take a mile hike up a paved road until you reach the stairs (so many stairs) that will lead down to Murphy Ranch. Once a large compound with a water storage tank, a fuel tank, a bomb shelter, now only a few structures remain scrawled with many layers of graffiti. Murphy Ranch was built in the 1930s by Nazi sympathizers for Nazi activities in the United States. The compound was intended to be self-sustaining for many years until law enforcement seized it in 1941 after the Pearl Harbor attacks. By 1990 the ranch was abandoned and closed. Just last year many structures were demolished as they were deemed unsafe.

Unfortunately when we took the hike to check out the grounds many of the buildings we had heard about were boarded up or knocked down. Although there isn't much left it is still fascinating to see the remnants of what could have been and signs of people that actually lived there. We spent 2 to 3 hours exploring the area, even taking a trail that lead to nowhere. 

Check the pictures below. I highly recommend Murphy Ranch trail, if you're bored on the weekend, need something to do or just like history... Just make sure you do it before they tear down the remaining buildings.

For directions to Murphy Ranch and what trail to follow, these ones proved to be the most helpful:

Thanks to Jeff Hester, creator of this one.

SoCal Hiker: Murphy Ranch - The Nazi Compound in Rustic Canyon

And AllTrails... one of my favorite apps.

AllTrails - Murphy Ranch Trail

Hopefully this will be the first of many in the "Big World, Petite Girl" series. :)

"What We Do Is Secret" charity exhibit at Stone Malone Gallery

Greetings loved ones!

I fully intended to come back on yesterday evening and write a second post but my YouTube video was being extremely difficult and not uploading. Since I'm new to all the nonsense I may have broken some copyright rules but I think I fixed it now. I thought I could set a song to a clip without an issue as long as I gave credit... but I guess not? Not really sure how that works, if someone else does let me know! :)

Anyway, this post is about the amazing art show I went to on Saturday. My dear friend, Lucas Raynaud, from back home curated this show and it was amazing. Lucas partnered with another individual, who I unfortunately don't know there name but I have their instagram - @thegossipandthechoir. It was an incredible show with some unbelievably talented artists. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the crowd that was there. This type of art would be classified as what I would call street art or urban art; graffiti. It appeared that most of the artists used spray paints and acrylic paints for their pieces. Lucas did the woodwork for what each artists was given to use as a canvas, wood life-size spray cans and square backdrop. He also made 50 mini wooden spray cans for the first 50 guests who came that nigh...  I made sure I was one of them :)

What I loved most about this show wasn't only the fantastic artwork but that a portion of all sales are being donated to the charity, #HashtagLunchbag AND they were taking donations for PROJECT SMILE SOUTH CENTRAL, a community project dedicated to beautifying the neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles with murals and artwork from world renowned artists to community children. They held a raffle for a book by Billboard Bandits as well to help with the charities. GUESS WHO was one of the lucky winners for that book?? YOURS TRULY! I got the text yesterday right after making my video, I was so excited haha!

If you are interested in seeing and/or purchasing any of the artwork the show is running from March 28, 2015 to April 11, 2015. They are having a closing night on 4/11 and there will be all new pieces up... I will definitely be in attendance! Location is:

Stone Malone Gallery                 

7619 1/2 Melrose Ave,

Los Angeles, California 90046 

That's all for now. Check out the video : Update & "What We Do Is Secret" at Stone Malone Gallery