The fourth annual Ranchos Walk led hundreds of Long Beach residents on a scenic, hours-long hike through the city from the Long Beach State campus to Rancho Los Cerritos on Saturday.
The 9.4 mile trek began at Long Beach State’s parking lot E6 on Palo Verde Ave. at 9 a.m., passing through Reservoir Hill and Hilltop Park, and concluding at Rancho Los Cerritos. There, walkers were greeted by volunteers and gifted a bandana for their accomplishment.
Aside from the over nine mile full walk, shortened versions of the walk were also available, with the 6 mile version beginning in Reservoir Hill and the 3.5 mile version in Willow Springs Park.
Once inside Rancho Los Alamitos, food and drinks were available to purchase for walkers and multiple Long Beach agencies including Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, Long Beach Water, and the Puente Latino Association tabled in the yard of the Rancho. In the Adobe, costumed docents gave historical details of the Rancho.
“The Ranchos are considered kind of the first homes of Long Beach,” Rancho Los Cerritos Director Allison Bruesehoff said in regard to Ranchos Los Cerritos and Los Alamitos.
According to Bruesehoff, the Ranchos Walk began in 2018, hosted by Walk Long Beach and the Long Beach Office of Sustainability as a way for Long Beach residents to “discover Long Beach.” Each year the path alternates to end at either Rancho Los Alamitos and Rancho Los Cerritos. Besides navigating through Long Beach to the two Ranchos, walkers also get the opportunity to learn about the history of the city.
Nancy Voils, a volunteer for Rancho Los Cerritos since 2009 and CSULB alumni, said she enjoys working the Rancho Walk each each year to meet and educate the Long Beach community.
“That way I can spread the history of Long Beach and be able to show the diversity that has been here from the point of the Rancho,” Voils said. “That’s why we have the costumed docents to teach the history and show the perspective of how people lived their lives.”