‘We got a little of ourselves back,’ visitors declare as Will Rogers park reopens months after fire

Sara Bock hiked the trails on the northern side of Inspiration Point at Will Rogers State Historic Park on Saturday. She stopped to reflect and snap photos of the charcoal-hued remnants of brush and trees.

She was close to tears, she said — both of happiness about Saturday’s long-awaited reopening of the site but also of sadness for all that was lost, inside and outside of the sprawling preserve since the Palisades fire swept through the area in January.

On Saturday, a limited stretch of the Inspiration Loop trail reopened, as well as such popular attractions as the main lawn and the polo field. Some other areas will remain closed while the arduous task of full recovery trudges ahead. It’s a big job.

California State Parks officials celebrated the public reopening of the park with activities that included guided hikes, polo demonstrations, lawn games and free coffee and ice cream.

That was reason to celebrate for Bock. She grew up in Pacific Palisades, went to school there and spent much of her free time in the park, whether on school field trips as a youngster or to find solace and inspiration later in life.

Bock said the park is a source of strength and mental health for her and many of her life lessons, she said, are tied up in this open space.  It got her through the COVID outbreak, she said, as well as other moments — and she treasures it.

A cancer survivor, she had been checking every day for weeks for word of the park’s reopening.

The Palisades fire, which shut down the park for months, killed at least 12 people, and damaged or destroyed more than 7,000 structures.

The massive blaze incinerated 8,000 acres of state parks land gutting Will Rogers’ famed ranch house in the process — one of dozens of historical sites gobbled by by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

In addition to the $3.6 million that lawmakers set aside in the state budget to rebuild the park and its visitor center, the parks department received a one-time $1.5 million grant from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy for fire resilience projects, according to Cal Matters.

The money helps pay for hardening new and existing buildings against fires, clearing defensive space around facilities and coordinating with fire agencies to maintain roads.

Because the park is considered a historic landscape, restoration efforts must remain consistent with the park’s history.

On Saturday, Alex Chavez stood atop Inspiration Point, taking in the scenery stretching before him, just like he used to before the park shut down.

The reopening was “bittersweet,” he said. Sweet in the rekindled happiness of being able to hike the trails again. But also bitter in the realization of how much has been lost, outside the park, but also inside, with much of the tree canopy that used to shade the trails now missing, months after Los Angeles County’s unprecedented twin wildfires.

Farther along the trail, Paul Martin pointed from the ridge above Rivas Canyon to a few houses and trees left standing after the fire.

One of those homes was his.

Martin’s family has not moved back, since he and his wife left for work early on Jan. 7 and could not return.

Not far away, many in a group of hikers going on a nature walk led by a park docent nodded and shared their own stories of loss and near-misses during and after the mammoth blaze.

Tamara and Ira Heiden said they were “over the moon” for the reopening.

“We got a little of ourselves back,” Tamara Heiden said.

Armando Quintero, director of the California Department of Parks and Recreation, said he was filled with emotion — moved to tears, he said — when he drove up to the park entrance on Saturday morning.

To see a jammed parking lot and the meadow packed with people and families enjoying their park moved him deeply, he said.

Before all the people arrived, Bill Hamm, a state parks interpreter, donned a volunteer hat.

Hamm paused to talk while leading a group of visitors on an early-morning history tour.

He recalled that his work was in the Palisades, as well as his house and his church.

And “it all burned down,” he said — including his work attire and his uniforms.

That’s what you get, he said, “when you put all your eggs in one basket.”

The only hat he could find Saturday was that park volunteer cap.

So on it went. Work to be done, after all.

Cal Matters contributed to this report