Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

Malibu Creek State Park

Malibu Creek State Park is a California state park near Malibu, in Calabasas. It opened to the public in 1980, using property purchased from 20th Century Fox that the studio had owned since 1946 along with adjoining properties.
Malibu Creek State Park stretches from below Malibu Lake in the west to Piuma Road in the east. It follows the creek down to the Pacific Ocean and includes the Adamson House on the beach. Tapia Park has recently been incorporated as a subunit of the park. The park includes three natural preserves:

• Liberty Canyon 730 acres (3 km²);
• Udell Gorge 300 acres (1.2 km²); and
• Kaslow Preserve 1920 acres (8 km²).

Malibu Creek State Park, with the Goat Buttes in the background.

Wildlife in Malibu Creek State Park

The area is habitat for mountain lions, bobcats, mule deer, golden eagles, and southern steelhead. In order to promote steelhead runs, the obsolete Rindge Dam is slated to be removed from Malibu Creek.

Reagan Ranch

In addition, the park is home to several culturally significant areas, including the remains of Reagan Ranch (which once belonged to the former US president), the Sepulveda Adobe, and the ruins of Mott Adobe.

Hikes, Camera, Action!

The park has been used as a location in dozens of films, starting with a number of Tarzan movies:

• Tarzan Escapes! (1936), Tarzan's Revenge (1938), Tarzan Finds a Son (1939)
• Blockade (1938)
• Full Confession (1939)
• How Green Was My Valley (1941)
• My Friend Flicka (1943)
• Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
• Viva Zapata! (1952)
• The Defiant Ones (1958)
• The Second Time Around (1961)
• Posse from Hell (1961)
• The Sand Pebbles (1966)
• Planet of the Apes (1968), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
• The Towering Inferno (1974) For miniature exteriors of a ficticious skyscraper.
• Logan's Run (1976)
• The Masters of the Universe (1987)
• Pleasantville (1998)
• The Hunter's Moon (1999)
• Secretary (2002)

The park was also a key filming location for the M*A*S*H series, both for the the feature film and the subsequent television series. The landscape was particularly seen in the opening credits for the show as helicopters carrying wounded approach the hospital with the recognizable Goat Buttes in the background.

Other television programs that used the park to pass for a post-apocalyptic earth were the children's program Ark II and the Planet of the Apes TV series.

The park is still used for occasional filming.

Things to do

Recreation activities in the park include: bird watching, hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, fishing, and picnicing. The Backbone Trail System, a multi-use long-distance trail spanning the Santa Monica Mountains, passes through Malibu Creek State Park.

The Trailmaster on Hiking Malibu Creek

Before land for Malibu Creek State Park was acquired in 1974, it was divided into three parcels belonging to Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan and 20th Century-Fox. Although the park is still used for moviemaking, it's primarily a haven for day hikers and picnickers. Malibu Creek hiking from The Trailmaster >>

See also

• List of California state parks
• Castro Peak

External links

• Website for the park
• Jerry Schneider's page on the parks history and filmography

Retrieved from "wikipedia.org"

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