Chaparral-filled canyons open around you here, where Balboa Park's formal plaza gives way to natural ravines carved by centuries of rain. Balboa Park is defined as much by its canyons as by its buildings — deep, chaparral-filled ravines carved by centuries of seasonal rain that create a hidden landscape of trails, quiet clearings, and native plant communities just minutes from downtown. Cabrillo Canyon here is crossed by the Cabrillo Bridge, a beautiful Beaux-Arts arched viaduct built for the 1915 Exposition and still the main western entry into the park's central mesa.
The canyon below it is a beloved running and hiking destination, thick with California sycamores and coast live oaks along the seasonal creek. During the 1915 Exposition, this canyon was crossed by a suspension bridge that has since been removed, but its original piers are still visible. The park's western edge also contains the Centro Cultural de la Raza, an arts and cultural center founded in 1970 that uses its Balboa Park presence to present Chicano, Indigenous, and Latino art and performance — a counterpoint to the park's officially celebratory Spanish colonial aesthetic.