Ballona Creek Tributary
May 16 2009 William writes:
A short urban adventure led us through a tributary of Ballona Creek. This is one of the many storm drains in the area.
Ballona Creek is the waterway that drains the Ballona Watershed. In the 1930s it was straighted, carved, lined with rocks from Catalina Island, and cemented by the Army Corps of Engineering to prevent flooding damage to the bordering cities (ballonacreek.org). Now there is a pleasant county maintained bike path running along side of the creek that crosses my daily bike to work.
One day after work 2 coworkers and I explored a tributary storm drain of Ballona Creek. We used bikes to stay above the 3″ deep water and had small headlamps to keep us away from the black widow invested walls. The graffiti on the walls led us to believe that we were not the first people to venture through the catacombs of Culver City. Below is a map of our approximate path.
View Ballona Creek Tributary in a larger map
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- Tributary entrance with graffiti galor.
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- Beau looking into a tributarys tributary.
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- Hunting for rats spiders and snakes.
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- The light at the end of the tunnel.
Categories: California
News and Events – 12 June 2009 « L.A. Creek Freak on 12 Jun 2009 at 4:32 am #
[...] W Roscoe (with my friend Federico) explores the Ballona Creek underground. [...]
Jessica on 12 Jun 2009 at 8:33 am #
Hi, how far up the stormdrain did you go?
Looks like a good adventure - a word of caution in case you didn’t know - there can be noxious fumes (methane etc) seeping into the channels, especially in this basin with its history of tar seeps and oil fields. When Public Works sends someone into the stormdrains they’re on a rig so they can be yanked out if they become unconscious. I don’t know the probability of it, but something to be aware of.