There’s A Nazi Camp in Santa Monica, CA

Los Angeles is just filled with so many random abandoned places. If you think that a sinking town caused by landslide and an abandoned old zoo are not weird enough, then how about a 50 acres Nazi compound in the Santa Monica mountain minutes from the popular third street promenade?

Murphy Ranch, the Nazi compound, or locally known to the residents as the Nazi House is located in the Rustic Canyon of Santa Monica Mountain. This complex was built by American Nazi sympathizers. Winona and Norman Stephens and their followers shortly took over the canyon and started to build this compound. The place was supposed to be self-sustaining Nazi campground with electricity generator, concrete walls, water tanks, and a  massive mansion making it the perfect place for Hitler and his military to plan a plot to take over the U.S.

Of course, World War II ended quite differently that they expected and LA police raided the place, arrested those involved, and shut down the complex. Today, the ground is open for the public to go and explore. Just like any other ruins and abandoned places in LA, the building is covered in graffiti and trash. Actually, it’s the dirtiest place I’ve ever been in LA. There was just so much trash and junks. The place is completely unsupervised.

Getting here was super easy. The hike is easy with one long flight of stairs that you will just walk down and up, but it’s nothing serious. If you go in the winter, like I did, you probably won’t even break a sweat.

Hike Overview

Where: Santa Monica, Rustin Canyon
Difficulty: easy
Miles: 3 miles round trip
GPS coordinates: 34.061097, -118.504121
Parking: park somewhere on Capri Drive. It can be a popular hike on a nice day especially among bikers so come earlier than later.
Trail Head: After you park in Capri Drive, just walk up hills toward Casale Road and turn left toward the Sullivan Ridge Fire Road. You will hike up the fire road to the stairs that take you to the Nazi House.

Hiking up the fire road is not as boring as you may think. The trail is beautiful and you can see the ocean!

You can already tell that this is a popular place among graffiti artists. Along the trail, you will see evidence of their works leading up to the compound.

You will eventually see this broken fence on your left after about a mile of hiking. You can get down to the Nazi Camp using the flight of stairs behind these fence or keep on walking until you see another big metal gate, and there’s another flight of stairs as well. There are a few stairs that will take you down, so just pick one, and they all pretty much lead to the same location.

When I was here, there were an older couple who walk up and down these stairs 50 times a day. I honestly don’t know how the hell they do it and I want to be that fit when I’m their age.

We finally get to the house. It is as awesome as we expected! covered in graffiti and trash. It was really cool. Like something that jumps out of a horror movie.

We on exploring the surrounding area and you will see many other ruins including this collapse building.