Urban Walking/Hiking: Embracing the Meditative Activity Just Outside Our Doors

I’ll admit, I chuckled to myself Googling the phrase “urban walking” in preparation to write this story and seeing the first definition, “A walk in the city that includes a sense of adventure.” I’m not laughing because it’s inaccurate—quite the opposite. Walking around the city can be a cumbersome chore or a magical journey, and it’s all about perspective.

I wasn’t a huge walker before I moved to Denver. I lived in Fort Collins, and while I was situated right across from Colorado State University and in ideal proximity to downtown, I usually took a walk to get blitzed at bars without driving, or stumbled home to avoid a rideshare.

Then, I stopped drinking in July 2018, moved to Denver a month later, and so began my personal love affair with urban walking.

Let’s revisit the aforementioned definition, ironically on the website Denver By Foot:

“(Urban walking or hiking) embraces the urban environment by adventuring through parks, climbing stairwells, crossing intersections, and meandering through the city’s obstacles of life. You can do urban hikes with your friends or by yourself. When urban hiking, you can be anonymous in a sea of people. Sidewalks, speedbumps, and curbs become your obstacles in your hiking trail to balance, cross, and giggle across.”

I’ll let you in on a secret: I candidly didn’t know until recently there was an explicit term for the activity I’d gravitated toward and that eventually became a crucial part of my day-to-day life. It’s affirming to see that so many others found the same solace in a walking adventure around the city that I always connected to.

After I stopped drinking and found myself in a new city, I needed a more productive hobby as I found my footing in sobriety and wanted to shake off the jitters of living in a new place. I also lived in Capitol Hill, and if you know that area, you know that parking can be rough. Once my albeit compact and easy-to-parallel-park Kia Soul was situated, I usually didn’t move it unless I was traveling more than a couple miles and didn’t have time to walk (or if street sweeping was coming up).

I grew up in Colorado, so I’d been to Denver in a fleeting capacity, but living there was a wholly new experience. I was walking up and down streets I had no idea about. I took notice of my favorite houses, and I even got into the habit of snapping quick pictures of things that caught my eye that I just thought were pretty.

Eventually, walking around Denver was just part of my routine. There was a period I worked downtown and (unless it was too cold) simply amped myself up for the day with a brisk, mile-long walk to my office, paired with a cool-off of sorts once my shift concluded.

I remember one scorching hot day I walked to the Gamestop in Glendale to pick up a Nintendo Switch, a 7.6-mile round trip from my apartment. I was sweating bullets by the end and fully exhausted, but I simply wanted to see myself do it and had the time. 

(Also, what better time to turn around and play a new gaming system? I earned it.)

I’ll admit that walking around the city often feels like a sort of weird escapism from everything else in my life, though it also is a very confrontational activity. It’s something I often embrace as a reminder, “Hey, there’s a whole world happening around you. Go see it.”

It sounds cheesy, but often just being able to bear witness to the colors of the city, the smells, the people around me, is incredibly grounding and calming. As someone who’s worked from home exclusively for more than two years, it’s a requirement to keep me comfortable and sane in my studio apartment all day.

I had a brief hiatus from my coveted activity brought on by 2020’s pandemic neurosis, though I began venturing out again a few months before moving to Los Angeles in September of the same year. Once again, I was faced with a new place, but this time, it was FULLY unknown. Because of COVID-19, the few trips I planned to scour out the area were canceled, and the day I moved to Hollywood was my first ever day in the city of Los Angeles.

It was like my Denver walks, with a fully new level of stimulation: the eclectic flora and fauna I’d never see in Colorado, the random sea birds hanging out with crows 10 miles inland, the Spanish-inspired architecture, sweeping street art, not to mention landmark after landmark after landmark within walking distance of my apartment.

Rather than sparring with the absurdly frustrating and dominant permit-only parking in West Hollywood, I can just jaunt a couple miles over that direction. I can turn down any given street and witness sights I never have before. It’s hard to explain that something so simple can be so gratifying. While I typically listen to music, especially during my longer endeavors, I usually use this as an excuse to keep my phone in my pocket and fully take in everything in front of me. 

It goes without saying this is a physically healthy habit, sure. I get plenty of steps in, and it definitely feels good to be moving and keep a brisk pace. But the main reason I walk so much isn’t just to max out my daily fitness; it’s largely because of the sense of well-being it offers me.

Another compelling argument for urban walking is that it helps us to understand the city we’re in. By the time I left Denver, I felt like I’d walked that place up and down. It makes me feel great going back, having such a detailed grasp of the city, and feeling like I’ve fostered a sort of personal relationship with it during my time there.

Los Angeles is … huge, so my walking journeys typically take me around Hollywood, or to close neighborhoods like West Hollywood, Larchmont, East Hollywood, and Hancock Park. I don’t expect to conquer all 503 square miles of Los Angeles on foot. Just pushing myself to stroll around these streets in my down time, and soak in every bit of it, immediately made me comfortable in my new home, among my fellow Angelenos, and always eager to keep exploring.

The Denver By Foot primer mentions that urban walking/hiking is an “attitude.” It truly does involve a bit of slowing down and even romanticizing the seemingly simple things all around us. In the digital world we live in, it’s easy to feel plainly over-exposed to everything. 

Urban walking/hiking plainly invites you to live in the moment, and what happens, or where you go next,  is entirely up to you and your feet.