This is a very small park at the end of Dixie Canyon Place in Studio City. The street leading to the staircase entrance is not much more than an alley which provides access to the residents of the very expensive townhouses in this neighborhood. The street suffers from occasional potholes and buckled pavement, probably because the water never stops running down the center drainage channel. The water comes from the year-round stream that flows down the canyon.
There is not much available parking close to the entrance, but it would be easy enough to park farther away and walk in. The hike, once you reach the park, is short and not difficult. The trail is about one-eighth of a mile, and loops at the top. Thanks, no doubt, to the stream, it is surprisingly green and fresh, with plenty of shade and lots of birds and critters in the bushes.
The fox squirrel is not native to California. Around 1904, military veterans from the Mississippi Valley area, who were staying at the Sawtelle Veterans Home on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, brought the animals here from their homes. By the 1940s the fox squirrel had come to be considered an agricultural pest. During the past century, it has expanded its range, and is now found throughout the Santa Monica Mountains, San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley. The animals are seen as far south as the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and to the east throughout Orange County. After so many generations, they probably consider themselves natives, but many naturalists are concerned that they may be displacing our true native species, the western gray squirrel (sciurus griseus).
