Creek beds with babbling brooks, wooden bridges to cross them, canopies of oak and sycamore trees, the horsy smell of country living. This is Martha Stewart's Connecticut masquerading as the Southern California hamlet of Monte Nido, Calabasas' little secret.
Beginnings
As can be said of many things in Los Angeles, the entertainment industry got here first.
In the 1920s, various movie studios built cabins to be used as weekend retreats in this area, roughly bordered by what are now Malibu Canyon-Las Virgenes roads, Piuma Road, Mulholland Highway and intersected by Cold Canyon Road. Families drove out from Los Angeles to enjoy the scenery, camp, hunt, fish and picnic.
Those were the days when the now $100-a-head-for-dinner Saddlepeak Lodge was a beer joint and a favorite of the visiting retreaters, who included Hollywood legends Errol Flynn and Clark Gable.
What's it about?
Judging from the number of basketball hoops in driveways and bikes left on lawns, the answer might be: kids. Toss in a way-above-average public school system -- Las Virgenes Unified School District -- and the blanks start to get filled in.
But that's only half of it.
This is a place that escaped developers' radar. Absent are the cookie-cutter homes that characterize much of Calabasas. Missing is the preponderance of postage-stamp lots with oversized McMansions.
Here, no two houses look alike. Mature trees abound. Horse manure punctuates the narrow roads, and you get the idea that no one is terribly bothered by it.
When you see a street sign announcing Huckleberry Drive, you think, "How perfect is that?"
Insider's view
Monte Nido valley is a rustic area within commuting distance of Los Angeles. Although it may not be far out, it is light years away from urban -- or even suburban -- city life.
Although not a designated community of the International Dark-Sky Assn. (whose mission is to stop adverse environmental impact on nighttime skies), Monte Nido is dedicated to minimizing light pollution and preserving the beauty of the night sky.
It is also home to a multitude of wild creatures, including coyotes, hawks, deer and raccoons, and it is a migratory pathway for myriad birds and butterflies in the spring and fall.
The neighborhood itself is a step back in time. It closes itself off to all traffic -- not that there is any through traffic to speak of -- for its annual Fourth of July parade. Families make floats; others ride on horseback. Prizes go to the best-dressed animal. Egg toss, sack races, homemade pies. Who says you're not in Kansas anymore?
