Deukmejian Wilderness Area, La Crescenta

In this mellow week between Christmas and The Rosebowl it’s a great time to get your family outside and celebrate where you live. Along with our amazing community, and great school schools, another one of the top reasons that people love living in The Foothills, is our close proximity to nature. Some of our favorite local spots to stretch our legs and take in the views are Crescenta Valley Park, Mt. Wilson, and Deukmejian Park.

Deukmejian Park or “The Deuk” as we like to call it, has some great hiking trails that are maintained by local Boy Scouts. It’s also home to the Historic Le Mesneger Barn that dates back to the 1800’s and a heritage vinyard that produces grapes for locally made wine. But most spectacularly, The Deuk has some of our most favorite views of The Crescenta Valley and Verdugo Mountains.

The Stone Barn is also a major attraction.

In 1885, two immigrant French winemakers, Georges Le Mesnager and Pierre Durancette, purchased land in Dunsmore Canyon from Dr. Benjamin B. Briggs, the founder of La Crescenta. Georges’ son, Louis, began building the unique two-story stone barn in 1905 with winery storage on the ground floor. It was completed in 1915 but a fire in 1933 burned the property, leaving only the stonework. The Le Mesnager family rebuilt the barn adding living quarters on the second floor and moved into the property.

Fortunately for us, the tradition of winemaking continues today thanks to the Stone Barn Vineyard Conservancy, which maintains 81 grapevines planted on the property. The Le Mesnager Stone Barn is now owned by the City of Glendale, which purchased the land in 1986 and has adaptively reused the historic resource as a nature education center and community building.
Check out this quick video!