I freely admit that the first time I saw the Eagle Rock I thought it got its name because it's shaped like the head of an eagle.It doesn't take long to find out that the Eagle Rock is named for the shadow cast by the formation in the upper center of the rock, which looks like an eagle with outspread wings. (I still think the rock looks like an eagle head but that either makes me crazy or makes the name doubly appropriate.)
Eagle Rock is also the name of the Los Angeles neighborhood that shares part of Pasadena's western border. To get there, all we have to do is drive or bike west on Colorado Blvd. for a few minutes. Eagle Rock was once its own municipality, incorporated into LA in 1923. The pre-incorporation City Hall and Library still stand on Colorado Blvd.
It's a funky area, with mostly independent businesses—coffee shops, clothing stores, restaurants, and the president's Alma Mater. I'll head over for a new installment in the Coffee Shop Quest one of these days.
Wikipedia's article about Eagle Rock has a photo taken from almost the same spot where I took this one. Their pic shows a deer in the bushes (it'll give you some scale) and a lot of dirt in the foreground, where now there's a lot of asphalt.
18 comments:
I'm gonna go with "doubly appropriate" -:)
All this time I thought it was named because it looked like an eagle head. (IT DOES!)
Cool shot and great info.
Looks to me like a bald headed, cross-eyed rock monster poking his out of the ground.
And also the name of a hit Australian song by Daddy Cool! A Daddy Cool Eagle rock photo, Petrea.
Wow, can you climb it?
I saw the winged version first. Petrea, you probably saw too much Sam the Eagle on the Muppets as you were growing up. :)
I'm so glad you saw the sideways looking eagle head first, because I thought I was the only one. No-one else I've asked seems to have seen it that way. Thank you for making me feel more normal!
I see it , I see it!!! Cool. ANd you gotta love that asphalt. Cover the whole darn country in it. Talk about global warming. That's probably the cause right there,
V
So, what does the PaDaPh Staff Geologist, the ascerbic Becca Walker, have to say about this formation?
An upswelling of eschatologic schist?
An accretion of subcranial molderite??
An igneous dollop of precratonic excess???
We need to know!
Cool photo I never knew about the shadow until now.
Btw. the wikipeda photo is only a couple of years old. Eagle Rock was designated a "Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument" 47 yrs ago.
Okay, I feel better about the head shape. Thank you.
That Daddy Cool is a time capsule, Shell!
Dina, I don't know if you can climb it. There's an apartment building behind it, so I didn't check that out.
J+P, you're makin' me hungry.
Ah, I get it now, James! I'll update the post with your correction, thanks. I wonder when the photo was taken? Has to have been a while, because the asphalt below the rock leads to a house right next to it that is not new.
It's like one of those illustrations where it's a vase one second and two people facing one another the second. I always looked at the rock as the eagle's head and beak, and now I see the wings, head and feet. And he's just released a bunny.
I'm glad it's not just me. I think it looks like an eagle's head, and I can also see the shadow thing. I hate to say it, but I've spent a lot of time wondering which eagle vision gave the rock its name.
Strange shape isn't it.. Bit like an eagle's head.........;)
… I think Susan C may be tipsy again …
I'm still looking for that bunny.
Maybe it's the shape that gave the rock its name and all the historical hooey is wrong. I feel so much better now.
The first time I saw it, I had a hard time finding the eagle. Now it's plain as day. I've heard there is an Italian bakery in Eagle Rock with delicious cannoli. I will get there...eventually!
What about the wee little ones that habitate it? The ones God called small among the heathens.
Why not?
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