For the 15th Annual Great Los Angeles Walk, we're doing things differently. Due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, this year's event will be socially distanced — but we figured, that shouldn't stop people from taking a walk, on their own, through this great city!
So for this year, we're returning to where it all began: Wilshire Boulevard. The Grand Concourse of Los Angeles, as author and L.A. blogger Kevin Roderick calls it. We previously hiked down Wilshire in 2006 and again in 2010. But it's been 10 years, and with everyone completely on their own this year, it's a perfect time to check out this boulevard on its own.
That means there won't be a big gathering to kick off things this year, no group photo at the end and no post-event gathering, sadly. Hopefully we'll be back together as a group in 2021 — but this year you can start or finish, well, whenever you please.
Some things haven't changed, however: The date is the Saturday before Thanksgiving as always — this year, that means Nov. 21. And also, most importantly, the goal of the Great Los Angeles Walk is always to explore your city. And this year in particular, without any official beginning or end, you can take that opportunity to see the great outdoor Los Angeles, patronize local businesses and take a breather in what has been an unbelievably stressful and awful year.
From the start of Wilshire in downtown LA to the ocean, it's an easy 15.6 mile walk. Along the way, as they hike down L.A.’s grand boulevard, walkers will encounter historic buildings like Bullocks Wilshire and the Wiltern Theatre; attractions such as MacArthur Park and the under-construction Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the buildings that replaced fallen of L.A. icons like the Brown Derby, the Ambassador Hotel and Perino’s.
Walkers will pass through a diverse cross-section of the region, including Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, the Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills, Westwood and Santa Monica. Wilshire starts in downtown at Grand, and ends at the Santa Monica statue, in Santa Monica, overlooking the ocean.
T-shirts are available for purchase here. Always check www.greatlawalk.com for updates, and feel free to drop us a line at greatlawalk@mail.com to let us know you're coming!
And again: The date for the walk is SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2020. Take a photo at the beginning, and one at the end, and send it to us! We won't have an actual group photo, but we can re-create one with a collage!
