For our 21st edition of The Great Los Angeles Walk, we're hitting the Mother Road! It's the 100th anniversary of Route 66, so why not get our kicks by walking the last several miles of the iconic highway — in this case, it's the full length of Santa Monica Boulevard!
As always, the Walk will take place the Saturday before Thanksgiving, which this year is Saturday, Nov. 21, 2026. We'll meet at Echo Park's Lady of the Lake statue at 9 a.m. -- and then walk Route 66/Santa Monica Boulevard (which, I know, is now actually Route 2!) in its entirety, to the ocean. We'll end, naturally, at the Santa Monica Pier's "End of Route 66" sign.
This is also a special year personally for the walk, as I'm celebrating my 30th (!!) anniversary in Los Angeles. Most of you know that The Great Los Angeles Walk was born in 2006 as a way to mark my first decade in L.A. That year, the Saturday before Thanksgiving in 2006 I decided to walk the length of Wilshire Boulevard after being inspired by the book "Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles" (by Kevin Roderick and J. Eric Lynxwiler), I asked the readers of my blog Franklin Avenue to come join me for a day-long stroll across the city.
In 2007, for the encore, I chose another downtown-to-the-ocean route: Pico Boulevard. The 2008 Walk took on Santa Monica Blvd. In 2009, the event kicked off in the historic West Adams district and walked to Venice Beach via Adams and Washington. In 2010, for its fifth edition, the Great Los Angeles Walk reprised its original Wilshire journey. In 2011, participants marched to the ocean via Hollywood Boulevard. In 2012, the Walk traveled across Melrose Avenue; in 2013, Sunset Boulevard; in 2014, the Walk traveled across the San Fernando Valley via Ventura Boulevard; in 2015, the Walk took on Olympic Boulevard.
In 2016, the Walk returned to Pico; in 2017, it tackled Beverly Boulevard; in 2018, in honor of Jonathan Gold, we walked on 6th Street, including through Koreatown; in 2019, we walked down Colorado Blvd. from Arcadia and Pasadena, and then through Highland Park to downtown via Figueroa; in 2020, the socially distanced edition returned to Wilshire; in 2021, the event retraced the steps of L.A.’s first settlers (Los Pobladores) from San Gabriel Mission to downtown; in 2022, it once again explored West Adams on the way to Venice; in 2023, the Walk went in a square, beginning and ending in Griffith Park; in 2024, we walked from USC to UCLA; and in 2025, to celebrate the 20th Great Los Angeles Walk, we returned once again to Wilshire.
If you're not familiar with the Walk, please go read this wonderful feature in the Los Angeles Times, which perfectly encapsulated what we're all about:
L.A. isn’t a walking city? The man behind Great Los Angeles Walk would like a word
The last time we walked down the full length of Santa Monica Blvd. was in 2008 — check out the recap here.
And in 2013, we met at the Lady of the Lake statue to walk down Sunset Blvd.; here's a photo from that gathering (which you may also recognize from this website's header):
Last year's Walk was perhaps our biggest yet; read all about it here. As always, the Walk is completely free and is meant to serve as a grassroots way for Angelenos to get together and explore their community and share it with others. Stay tuned and make sure to email us at greatlawalk@mail.com to get on our email list!
Here's what the route will look like — don't worry, a real map will come soon, this is just a guideline.
And as you know, our rule is always the same: You can walk as much or as little as you want! FAQ, including the real map, will come later. More details to come!
