Bird’s-Eye View of Malibu : There Are Canyons to Explore, Beaches to Stroll, History to Recall Along a Deceiving Stretch of Coast

Since the 1920s, Malibu’s secluded coves and beaches have harbored hideaways for Hollywood stars. In the 1960s, a generation grew up watching the Beach Boys, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon portray Malibu as the world’s surf and sun mecca.

For some, Malibu is a series of legendary landscapes. For others, Malibu evokes images of brush fires and canyon floods.

Malibu, however, is more than a setting for surfing, stargazing and natural disasters.

In the seaside community, where the mountains meet the sea, nearly every type of landscape, life style, historical landmark and flora in the Southland is represented.

See It All, on Wheels

What follows is a four-hour driving tour of Malibu, exploring its beaches, canyons, mountains, villages, historical sites, popular landmarks and cafes.

The tour is designed to provide an overview of the community’s rich history and hidden settings. Begin the tour by 9 a.m. to avoid the beach traffic.

A good starting point is the western end of the Santa Monica Freeway. Beyond the freeway’s last tunnel, the wide sandy beaches of Santa Monica Bay come into view. The freeway turns into Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu’s main road.

From this vantage point, the Santa Monica Mountains can be seen ahead. The range includes 36 miles of seashore, much of which makes up Malibu.

Continue west between the ocean and the sea cliffs called the Palisades, passing some of the 26 canyons that lead from the mountains to the sea, including Santa Monica Canyon, Temescal Canyon and Santa Ynez Canyon at Sunset Boulevard.

Pass the Getty Museum at 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, which marks the Los Angeles city limit; you are now in Malibu, the unincorporated Los Angeles County community of 20,000. From here, Malibu continues west for 20 miles to the Ventura County line.

Many visitors are disappointed by their first impressions of Malibu. Expecting spectacular ocean views, they instead find rows of flimsy oceanfront houses blocking beach access and vistas.

Telephone poles and wires mar the views of the sky. Asphalt parking lots edge the beaches. Dry, dead grass covers the crumbling hillsides. Farther on are scattered commercial buildings, some obscured with tacky signs. Malibu appears ramshackle.

But don’t despair. Coming up is Topanga Canyon with its dense groves of sycamore trees and folksy stores along the highway. Sumptuous views of the azure ocean, pelicans, boats and surfers are a surprise at every turn. The rugged cliffs show alternating colors of reds, yellows, grays and greens.

Sections of the roadside cliffs where land movements and falling rocks have threatened beachfront houses are visible. In the 20700 block of Pacific Coast Highway, barriers of steel beams and thick wooden planks prevent the unstable rock cliffs from crashing across the highway.

About nine miles from Topanga Canyon is the community’s heart at the Malibu Lagoon. Park along PCH near the Malibu Creek Bridge or in the Malibu Lagoon State Beach lot for $4; its entrance is at the intersection of Cross Creek Road and PCH.

From this intersection, walk south to the Malibu Lagoon information kiosks, which provide interpretive displays of the lagoon’s ecosystem and history. Malibu Creek flows all year, forming the Malibu Lagoon as it meets the sea.

For more than 5,000 years, a Chumash Indian village existed at this idyllic place. On Oct. 10, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the first Spanish explorer of Alta California, stopped at this Indian village, where he stayed for three days, replenishing his expedition’s water and supplies.

The villagers greeted Cabrillo’s two ships with their swift red-planked canoes, which so impressed the conquistador that he named the village Pueblo de las Canoas.

The Chumash, however, called their lagoon village Humaliwu, meaning “the surf sounds loud.” The community’s name today is derived from this Chumash word.

Cabrillo sailed north and Humaliwu continued its peaceful existence for more than 200 years, until the missions came in the 1780s and Humaliwu villagers relocated.

In 1802, the Rancho Topanga Malibu y Sequit was formed along this mountainous coast. During the next 90 years, amid land disputes, three different owners settled on the isolated ranch.

In 1892, Rancho Malibu’s 13,300 acres were sold for $10 an acre to Frederick Hastings Rindge, a wealthy Yankee from Cambridge, Mass., who had settled in Southern California four years earlier. Rindge built up the idyllic ranch to 17,000 acres along 24 miles of uninterrupted seacoast.

Soon, however, the secluded world of Rindge’s Malibu estate was threatened.

In 1904, Southern Pacific Railroad applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for permission to build a railroad line from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara through Malibu.

As long as no other line existed on the property, the state could condemn land for a railroad’s right-of-way. Ingeniously, Rindge decided to build his own railroad first before the Southern Pacific.

Wife Built Railroad

In 1905, before realizing his plan, Rindge died. His wife, May, decided to save the ranch and build the railroad. At a cost of $1 million, the Hueneme, Malibu and Port Los Angeles Railroad opened its 15 miles of standard-gauge tracks in 1908 from Las Flores Canyon to Yerba Buena Canyon in Ventura County.

The small railroad remained in use nearly 20 years.

But soon another battle confronted May Rindge. With increasing pressure from homesteaders and automobile enthusiasts, the government sought to build a public highway through the Malibu ranch.

Rindge responded by installing gates across her beach road, at times protected by armed guards on horseback. She fought so defiantly against several lawsuits in the public interest that she was nicknamed Queen of the Malibu.

County, State Won Suits

However, in 1919 she lost a lawsuit that allowed the county to build a public road through portions of her property. In 1923, the state won a lawsuit and was granted a right-of-way through the rest of Malibu Ranch.

In June, 1929, the Roosevelt Highway (now Pacific Coast Highway) opened, through what had been one of California’s last remaining intact ranchos.

Continuing your walk from the kiosks, go south on the pathway to Surfriders Beach, made famous in the surf movies of the 1960s. The beach has been popular for surfing, however, since 1927, when Duke Kahanamoku taught the Hawaiian sport to early Malibu surfers.

West of Malibu Point is Malibu Colony, the gated community of multimillion-dollar homes. This residential enclave was started in 1928 as a hideaway for film stars. Early residents included Clara Bow, Ronald Colman, Delores del Rio, Bing Crosby, Jack Warner, Gary Cooper and Gloria Swanson.

Follow the shore toward the state-owned Malibu Pier, originally built by the Rindge family in 1903 and rebuilt in 1946.

Walk up to PCH and stop for breakfast at the Malibu Inn across from the pier at 22969 Pacific Coast Highway.

Built in the 1920s as a roadhouse, this unpretentious cafe became world famous in the 1940s and ‘50s as the watering hole for Malibu’s resident Hollywood stars. Inside are scores of autographed publicity photos of some of Hollywood’s most famous faces. The great breakfasts of the restaurant (now the Omelette Parlor) are popular with locals.

Walk west to the Malibu Lagoon Museum, 23200 Pacific Coast Highway. Open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the park offers fascinating historical and ecological information.

Walk down the dirt road to the Adamson House, a Spanish Colonial Revival residence designed by architect Stiles O. Clements in 1929 for May’s daughter, Rhoda, and her husband, Merritt Huntley Adamson, as their weekend retreat.

The couple later began the successful Adohr Dairy, named by spelling Rhoda’s name backward.

Sited on Vasquero Hill with spectacular views of the beach, lagoon and mountains, the Adamson House features extensive use of Malibu tiles--decorative ceramic tiles manufactured at Malibu Potteries.

The factory was built by May Rindge in 1926 at the foot of Carbon Canyon, half a mile east of the pier. Today, the Los Angeles City Hall features 23 murals made from Malibu tiles. Even the Watts Towers contain broken fragments of Malibu tile collected by their creator, Simon Rodia.

The factory was destroyed by a fire in 1931.

Rich Collection of Tiles

The Adamson House contains today’s richest collection of Malibu tiles, and adjoining the house is an excellent small museum, which documents and describes Malibu’s fascinating history with photographs, maps, paintings and even Chumash Indian artifacts discovered at the lagoon.

Drive west on PCH, passing the hillside campus of Pepperdine University, toward Point Dume. Jutting into the Pacific, this peninsular mesa forms the western end of Santa Monica Bay. It was named in 1793 by English sea captain and explorer George Vancouver.

Stopping at Mission San Buenaventura on his way south, he was so impressed with the hospitality of Father Francisco Dumetz that he named this gentle point after the kind priest.

As you pass Paradise Cove, turn left at Zumirez Drive and then turn right on Wildlife Road. The surroundings boast eucalyptus groves, ranch houses, horse corrals and the rolling hills of Point Dume.

Turn right on Fernhill Drive and then right again at Cliffside Drive. Many of the informal California ranch houses now share acreage with grandiose new estates.

Follow the road as it passes Point Dume and veers north on Birdview Avenue, then descends a small arroyo down to Westward Beach. Turn right at the stop sign and then left on PCH.

Continue west, passing such famous state beaches as Zuma, El Matador, La Piedra, El Pescador and Leo Carrillo, all providing public parking and access to the shore. The latter beach contains a nature trail, tide pools, sea caves, a natural funnel and rock formations.

At Leo Carrillo Beach, turn right on Mulholland Highway. This two-lane mountain road, lined by rows of eucalyptus trees, winds up the twisting canyon into the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu’s back yard.

The road goes into the chaparral-covered hills, and as it crosses a stream, coastal live oaks dot the roadside. The fragrance of wild sage fills the air.

A few charred oaks, blackened by brush fires, rise above the thick scrub grass. During the ascent, reddish basaltic pinnacles jut above the chaparral, including Sandstone Peak, the range’s highest at 3,111 feet.

Turn left at California 23, then right as Mulholland Highway branches east, passing campgrounds, isolated ranch houses, rocky peaks and avocado groves. To the south are panoramic views of the Pacific and Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Cross Kanan Dume Road and continue east on Mulholland Highway as it descends into Triunfo Canyon to the mountain village of Cornell. Stop at the Rock Store and Vern’s Deli, known to motorcyclists around the world.

Old Watering Hole

Built in 1909 as a stagecoach stop between Calabasas and Camarillo, the deli and general store have become the watering hole and gathering spot for hundreds of motorcyclists on Sunday afternoons, with their Harleys, antique Indians and “cafe racers.”

Continue east on Mulholland Highway and turn right on Lake Vista Drive. Soon the narrow road leads to Malibou Lake, a private resort planned in the 1920s with cabins, pines and lawns around its blue waters.

Turn right again on Mulholland Highway. Soon vistas open to the south of Malibu Canyon with its volcanic-rock escarpments and wooded valley.

In 1946, 20th Century Fox purchased 2,300 acres in the canyon and named it Century Ranch, using its diverse landscapes for film locations. In 1974, the state purchased 4,000 acres of the land for public use as Malibu Creek State Park.

At Las Virgenes Road, turn right. On the left is one of California’s newest and most exotic religious centers, the Hindu Temple of Southern California at 1600 Las Virgenes Road.

Reminiscent of ancient temples in India, the complex includes many different temples dedicated to a pantheon of Hindu deities. The main temple complex was built between 1981 and 1987, when it was dedicated.

To return to the coast, continue south about 5 miles through Malibu Canyon. From here, relax at nearby Surfriders Beach, stroll along the pier or return to the city at your leisure.