Old LA Zoo, Griffith Park

The story

In 1912, Los Angeles opened its first official city zoo in Griffith Park, dumping exotic animals into heavy-barred steel cages and dark, poured-concrete grottos. It was never a modern sanctuary—animals struggled in the primitive, cramped conditions—and when the shiny, modern Los Angeles Zoo opened up the road in 1966, the city simply locked the gates and walked away from the old one.

Rather than tearing down the heavy concrete ruins, the park department eventually pulled a bizarrely casual move: they bolted wooden picnic tables and outdoor charcoal grills right inside and around the abandoned bear dens and stone habitats. Instead of a fenced-off hazard or a preserved museum, the site became the Old Zoo Picnic Area.

Tucked into a canyon just north of the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round, the ruins let you wander straight through open iron gates into cave-like concrete grottoes where big cats and bears once paced. Rusted service passages still trace behind the walls, weeds punch through the floor slabs, and you can eat lunch inside a cave that used to hold wild animals—all without trespassing.