The Zorthian Ranch is an interesting place, with a fascinating history of art activities and many famous people visiting it in the past. We were attracted by the picture shown on the Airbnb site, and decided to book it, for our planned visit to Pasadena. Our son is a graduate student there, and we planned to spend Thanksgiving there with him, and wanted a comfortable house for this. We sent the request, but did not receive a reply within the designated 24 hours. Then I sent another request and the next day the request was approved, for us to stay at the Ranch from Nov. 19 to Nov. 27. Several days later, however, the host informed us that they have a film shooting the first two days, at the Ranch, but we told him it was OK with us. The next day he told us, to our dismay, that he has to decline us staying the first two days, but we could stay the rest of the time. Since we really liked the pictures, we agreed, and found another Airbnb house we rented for the first two days, even though moving in mid-visit is not that convenient.

After our pleasant stay at this other place for the first two days, we set out to move to the Ranch on Nov. 21. The first surprise was the road sign at the entrance to the access road to the Ranch, before a little bridge there, which read: "Bridge in dangerous condition. Subject to failure at any time. Drivers assume all risk associated with crossing".

Well, this was not what we expected, and the very steep mountain-like climb on the tiny access road was also a real struggle. The really steep unpaved road was in a terrible state with many potholes, steep turns, and a possibility to wreck your car in a precipice if you slip of the road. I had to drive about 5 miles/hour; it was like a rollercoaster ride from hell. Now doing this once a day is unpleasant (for us), but doing this more than once would be pure torture, and thus we decided to move out the next day. The property care-taker came to see us the next morning, however, and he was a very polite and very kind young man, who was rather apologetic and immediately agreed to cancel our stay for the following days, and even gave us reimbursement for the nigh we stayed there. This was very nice, and I appreciate his kind understanding of our concerns. But there is no way we'll even go back there again, even though other people may not find the access road such a big problem.