A Forgotten WWII Bunker

Looking inside

Recently I have started summer work at a local park, and eventually I heard rumors of a forgotten World War Two bunker up in the park's hills. After brief research I found it did exist, but finding the location was all up to me.

It took some time but was not terribly difficult once I figured out what to look for. Today (the day this post was written) myself and a friend made the steep hike (430+ vertical over half a mile) up the ridge to find this forgotten relic of chaos.

Quite a view

It is a nineteen by sixteen-foot concrete box roughly three feet underground and was built in connection with coastal batteries in Huntington Beach. It was an observation post with an incredible view of the coast from Palos Verdes in the north to Dana Point in the south, and on this day the Queen Mary was clearly visible in Long Beach, a distance of 26 miles. Inside is a lot of dirt because it was buried after it was decommissioned, and also contains two binocular stands without their namesakes. The window in front is about a foot tall with 180˚ of stunning views to scan the horizon for trespassing ships. At the very front is a pedestal for (I'm assuming) a 50' caliber machine gun that obviously never saw use.

The interior is small and the walls are painted with graffiti, but the ladder up to the closed entry portal allows a small view to the sky. In the back corner is a small hole in the floor for electrical conduits.

UPDATE, 2021: Back in 2017 or 2018, this bunker was buried and sealed off from entry. It's a shame to lose this piece of history, since there are so few like this left in southern California. 

The view out the front window.

Had to do a panorama to fit the whole window in

Dirt from when it was buried. On the other side the window covering
of plate steel was still in place.

Panorama of the inside

Looking out at Catalina

Unsuspecting tourists who didn't know the bunker was
even here.

Looking up the ladder

I like this painting

One of the binocular stands

Machine gun mount?

Interior panorama

Looking at the former concrete seal. A really cool location.

I was completely unaware of any wartime structures between Camp Pendleton and this was a really cool find for me.