Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA

Chatsworth is the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, where sandstone boulders pile up along the Santa Susana Pass and horse trails run behind ordinary suburban blocks. Homes here spread out more than in most of the city. Postwar and 1960s ranch houses fill the flats, while streets toward the hills carry larger lots, many with room for horses, corrals and access to the bridle trails. Several mobile home parks along Lassen Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard add a different, more modest housing option. Stoney Point Park, next to Topanga Canyon Boulevard, is a longtime bouldering spot with short trails around its stacked formations. Chatsworth Park South sits below the Simi Hills with trails heading up toward Garden of the Gods and Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park. Devonshire Street is where the neighborhood eats and drinks. The Cowboy Palace Saloon has been a honky-tonk with live country bands and line dancing for years, and Awkward Coffee a block away is the independent coffee stop. Getting around is better than the rural feel suggests. The Chatsworth station has Metrolink and Amtrak trains plus the end of the Metro G Line busway, and the 118 runs along the northern edge. Most errands still take a car, and cross-town trips are long. The distance cuts both ways. Chatsworth sits about as far from downtown as the city gets, and in exchange a weekday evening can end with a walk up among the boulders at Stoney Point while the light goes orange on the rock.