Campers Can Find Wilderness Close to Home

Some urban refugees get away by heading to the middle of nowhere.

Others find serenity by heading to the middle of the city.

Take David Franks, who with his wife, Merrie Ann, son Paul, 6, and his friend, Manoah Ainuu, gathered their camping gear on a recent Friday afternoon and drove all of five minutes from the Franks’ home in Torrance to Hopkins Wilderness Park in Redondo Beach. Surrounded by strip malls, condominiums and honking traffic, the 11-acre compound seems an unlikely spot for rest and relaxation.

But the city clamor is left behind when the Franks and other visitors enter the fenced retreat. All around, a thousand rustling redwood, pine and eucalyptus trees mask the urban din. Squirrels and rabbits scamper through the grass, delighting children. Two brooks help ease grown-up tensions.

It’s the pair of herons landing on a pond, not the planes approaching nearby Los Angeles International Airport, that draw attention here.

There are no baseball or soccer fields, no jogging trails or tennis courts.

Instead, Hopkins provides a wilderness experience year-round without the long drive, without bears and even without insect pests, thanks to ponds stocked with mosquito-eating fish called gambusia, said Harald Myring, a former Norwegian journalist and businessman turned wilderness park coordinator.

There are a few raccoons and skunks, Myring says, but this is the outdoors, after all.

Living a short distance away proved a blessing to the Franks, who, unpacking their gear, realized they had left their tent poles behind. Merrie Ann Franks hopped into the car and headed home to retrieve them.

“We’ll set up camp, cook chicken for supper and go hiking before it gets dark,” David Franks said, ticking off the itinerary for their overnight outing.

For parents, there’s an added benefit to camping here. The park is locked overnight, making it safe for children to romp around the grounds without their parents in tow.

“Paul knows this place like the back of his hand,” Franks said, relaxing in a lawn chair as the two boys bounded down a grassy hill to the lower pond. A red-eared slider turtle, sensing the children’s presence, poked its head out of the water, possibly looking for treats, which are sold at the park office for 25 cents per handful.

The park opened in 1977, six years after the federal government donated the former radar site to Redondo Beach. It sits atop the highest point of the El Segundo sand dunes and is named for former City Manager Frances E. Hopkins, who helped acquire and develop the land into a park with $1 million in federal, state and local funds.

But it’s a faux wilderness. For one thing, much of the nature is man-made. The ponds, while realistic looking, are artificial. So are the streams, which are scrubbed out yearly to eliminate algae.

The vegetation is watered once a week by an irrigation system that soon will be computerized. Nonnative plant species abound, although some, like the grasses, are being replaced with native varieties by Eagle Scouts and other volunteers.

Lengthy excursions to the park are also out. Camping is best enjoyed as a one- or possibly two-night experience, said Dave Bacon, Redondo Beach recreation services manager. “It’s not like going to Sequoia [National Park]. There’s only so much to do. After one night, kids tend to get bored.”

There also are strictly enforced rules, including no alcohol, no bicycles and no toy guns. Pets are banned to protect the wildlife.

Over the years, a number of unwanted pet rabbits have been dumped at the park, a practice park officials strongly discourage.

With the park’s permission, the Franks adopted one of the abandoned rabbits a year ago. “Rocky Rabbit” now lives in a pen in their backyard.

The park has become increasingly popular, and the three campgrounds (two group sites and one for individuals or families, allowing a maximum of 30 campers each), are frequently booked.

“It’s an ideal place for [a] first-time camping experience because you are not really far from home,” said Myring, who strongly encourages making reservations at (310) 318-0668.

During the last year, there were 644 reservations for the campsites, translating into 12,000 people. At least 36,000 daytime users also visited the park in that period.

Most visitors and campers are from the South Bay, but some come from as far away as Germany, where some tour books list the park. But at home, the park comes as a surprise to many.

“I’ve lived here 10 years and I didn’t know about this place,” said Dolly Boden, a Hermosa Beach resident who discovered the campground by accident a year ago. “We were driving by and saw it.”

Boden recently brought her two sons, Carson, 4, and Cade, 18 months, along with her mother, Lee Spasiano of Pompano Beach, Fla., for an overnight outing.

“I told my mom we were going camping [in the city] and she kind of looked at me strangely,” Boden said.

On the other side of the park, Kenny Ogawa of Rancho Palos Verdes was studying a crumpled map of the park, trying to pinpoint his family’s assigned campsite.

“I’m an experienced camper,” Ogawa said, adding that he has camped at Yosemite National Park and Mammoth Mountain. “But I’d never heard of this place until a friend told me about it.”

Hopkins Wilderness Park is no national monument, but it’s “pretty cool,” Ogawa said. “It’s better than I expected.”