Picturing Ojai

Ojai's Topa Topa Mountains

After a recent weekend in the small Southern California town of Ojai, I was excited to learn that the area’s long been a shooting location for Hollywood movies.

Maybe the film crews come for the soaring mountains, the almost-endless valleys, the acres of orange groves, the gurgling streams, the antique trains, the soft, dreamy color palette, the peace and quiet…or all of the above.

Just outside of town, wind your way north up the 33. As the Topa Topas grow higher and closer, you’ll find yourselves in hiking and waterfall country. A rushing creek burbles over smooth stones between jagged canyon walls that bake in glittering sun or cool off in the fringed shade of pepper trees and dry-brush natives; the Old West landscape here inspired D.W. Griffith in 1915 for his silent/racist epic, Birth of a Nation. Up here we were excited to discover plenty of alone time and the dramatic Rose Falls, a spectacular 300-foot waterfall that, in late February, rushed straight and strong off of snow-capped mountains.

Rose Valley and Rose Falls, above Ojai off the 33 heading north

Back down on Main Street, the creation of one of Ojai’s founding fathers, glass magnate Edward Libbey, you can escape the rush of the big city along a 1917 porticoed shopping arcade, a period post office and movie theater, and a sprawling park built around an ornate fountain. A few blocks away, the 2010 movie Easy A was shot at Ojai’s Spanish-style Nordhoff High School; the German “Nordhoff” was Ojai’s original name, changed during World War II in a stroke of pro-American public relations.

In and around Ojai's downtown

For a less architectural view, take a left off Main venture up to Meditation Mount (10340 Reeves Road). Here amongst the wild rabbits and purple cacti, take a deep breath as fluffy clouds drift by the rocky peaks, casting shadows on the rolling orchard hills. The Mount stood in for Shangri-La in 1937′s Lost Horizon, and since 1971 has been home to a spiritual center and meandering hilltop garden.

Meditation Mount

Most recently, the Ojai Valley and the nearby town of Fillmore were locations for the upcoming movie Water for Elephants. In a daring leap of cross-Waldman promotion, I’m pleased to mention that the national poster campaign for this movie was created by Adam’s company, The Refinery.

The circus drama, based on a bestseller by Sara Gruen, is set largely on a Depression-era train provided by the Fillmore & Western Railway Co. The Railway’s collection of antique trains, depots and props have made appearances in many movies (e.g., Inception and Unstoppable), but the company also specializes in scenic jaunts between the small Ojai-adjacent towns of Fillmore and Santa Paula.

Our experience with the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater was, sadly, less than romantic. The actors in our western-themed evening were pretty hilarious, but after a while, we felt our faces straining with the effort of smiling at energetically-encouraged audience participation. For the three-hour evening, we were seated at a table with slightly humorless strangers, and found the three-course meat-and-potatoes meal largely inedible; we had higher hopes for an event that costs about $90 per person. We loved the train itself and its vintage 1930s details, though, and were left wishing that we’d at least had a chance to see some scenery out of the windows.

Fillmore and Western Railway Co.'s Stargazer Express and the train depot in Santa Paula

You might want to instead try a daytime, weekend excursion; you could sit side-by-side and watch the countryside unfold, then poke around Santa Paula’s historic downtown ($24 US per adult). Once back at the depot in Fillmore, right across the train tracks you’ll find the Geissinger Winery tasting room in an old converted warehouse.

Back in the heart of Ojai, fields of fruit trees, farm houses and brushy native plants are surrounded by the huge, slanted peaks of the Topa Topas; just about every day at sunset, the light hits the mountains just so…and creates a glowing, romantic phenomenon known as the Pink Moment.

A Pink Moment in the Topatopa Mountains, an Ojai sunset phenomenon

Some folks feel this is the greatest show in town and make a regular event of toasting it with locally-made rosés and cocktails of the same name. The Pink Moment and the whole Ojai area are just waiting to be savored — and seen.

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See also
Indulge in a Bit of Ojai
The Ojai Valley