68. Best Sight L.A. of a Park with the Same Name as a Beach Boys' Song

Everyone (okay, maybe not everyone)...those who attend concerts know a good concert includes an encore song.

Your CaliforniVacation SoCal gal has put together what she dubbed, the "Hotel California Tour".  For this travel concert (if you will extend me the metaphor), we shared some sights in Santa Monica.  We shared some sights in Venice.  We shared sights in walking distance of the Hotel California in Santa Monica.

For our tour encore, we share and award the "Best Sight L.A. of a Park with the Same Name as a Beach Boys' Song".  And the award goes to, Palisades Park in Santa Monica.

For you song purists, you may recall the song Palisades Park was written by Chuck Barris.  Some of you may remember him best from the The Gong Show.  The song was originally recorded by Freddy Cannon.  The song has been covered by many artists, including the Beach Boys.  The kicker: the song is not about this particular park of the same name, but a tribute to New Jersey's Palisades Amusement Park (wonder if the Sopranos ever visited).  This explains why your SoCal gal was a little confused when she first visited and noticed the signs for Palisades Park in Santa Monica wondering, "Where are all the carnival rides at?"  Live and learn.

In my mind the park begins at Colorado and Ocean Avenue tracking north on Ocean Avenue for about a mile and a half until Palisades Park ends at Entrada Drive.

As you begin to walk the park, you note there are two paths you can go by.  One path tracks the west edge of the park giving you the best bird's eye view of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), the beach and ocean below.  The other path tracks closer to the street.  The first time I had this thought about the two paths, a certain song's lyrics started flowing through my mind..."Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there's still time to change the road you are on."  You know which song.  I know you do.

There are many interesting landmarks along the park paths, regardless of which one you choose.  I liked the one in this photo with Chaplin etched in the round part of the stone marker (as seen in the photo).

There is a wonderful monument dedicated to all the different armed forces along the path shown in the photo below.

Maybe you don't wish to traverse the entire length of the park.  Perhaps going as far as Wilshire Boulevard is enough for you.  Then you might walk east on Wilshire to the north end of the Third Street Promenade.  Then walk the Promenade to allow for a great little Santa Monica sightseeing circle.  Or...

...Where Wilshire Boulevard meets the park, is where the statue of Santa Monica is located.  Pass the statue of Santa Monica to the west edge of the park; you find yourself at the dedicated sight to John Percival Jones.  Mr. Jones is credited as a founder of Santa Monica.  The area dedicated to Mr. Jones is said to be his favorite sight where he often wandered to view the sunset of his beloved Santa Monica.  It's a lovely place.  How can you fault him?  A video of this view is included with this blog post.

As you may imagine in such a lovely outdoor nature setting as Palisades Park, wildlife abounds.  On one visit I was elated to watch a squirrel enjoy a little afternoon nosh.  A video is included with this blog post.

Please note Palisades Park has signs posted politely asking visitors to refrain from feeding the wildlife.  A third video is included with this blog post that shares what may happen when people feed the wildlife.

There's much more to see at Palisades Park than what I've already shared in this blog post.  The park is jam packed with nature eye-candy.  The perfect choice for an encore, if I do say so myself.

Ahhh!!!  It feels good to celebrate the sights of L.A.