Moonlight Forest

Spending money to attend Moonlight Forest at the Los Angeles County Arboretum was so worth it. Having been to the Los Angeles County Arboretum before, it was quite the experience to see the grounds transformed into something else. If you think you’ll be able to catch glimpses of the grounds during Moonlight Forest, think again. The most you will be able to catch a glimpse of is the somewhat eerie yet beautiful Victorian home when viewing the dragon from afar.

For some, this may be a deal breaker as they might want to be able to see the grounds along with the lights of Moonlight Forest but it just doesn’t work that way, folks. Like I mentioned earlier, Moonlight Forest was worth my money so if you’re feeling reluctant simply because you won’t really be able to see the grounds, you should really reconsider. (Also, why would you want to see the grounds at night when you could possibly face a coywolf or worse?)

One thing I was surprised to not have encountered during Moonlight Forest was a real peacock. I saw a decent amount of lit peacocks but none of the grounds’ peacocks were seen or heard. (I wonder where they were hanging out…)

Moonlight Forest offers a lot of photo opportunities and this, I found to be both good and bad. Good because the bulk of people in this day and age are obsessed with taking photos for their social media apps. (Instagram influencers would be happy at this event, I feel.) And bad because these photo opportunities aren’t meant for the lone attendee. It’s one thing when photo opp stations are manned by a staff member but a totally different story when they’re unmanned. Unmanned, it becomes difficult and tricky to pester someone to photograph you. Fortunately, I got a nice Asian lady that was with her mom who took my photo for me. I had taken a photo for them also. (I noticed that even they had a bit of trouble with asking for photography assistance from fellow attendees. Imagine how much worse it is for a solo attendee.)

I went around, taking photos here and there. Of all the lights I saw, I feel my most favorite was actually the ocean theme lights. Obviously, I have a good amount of photos of these ocean themed lights.

Gotta love seahorses! I will always love how male seahorses go through the rut of pregnancy!

Probably my most favorite area of Moonlight Forest.

I don’t know about you but doesn’t this give off such a chill vibe? It’s like being on vacation along the coast of Baja California or something.

There was a crescent moon photo opp that most people seemed to like. Although nice, I couldn’t help but to feel as though I was walking through a cemetery to get near the moon. All those pink lights on the ground made me feel a bit strange. The funny thing is from afar, it didn’t look like a cemetery.

There were food trucks and even a performance stage. Didn’t catch any performance so I can’t say anything about it. As for the food trucks, I didn’t see anything appealing but then again, I wasn’t hungry. I noticed a food truck selling ice cream and had a wtf moment since it was way too cold up in the foothills to be consuming ice cream. But then again, it’s not like I’ve never had ice cream on a cold day before…

It didn’t take long for me to see all of Moonlight Forest. I think an hour and a half is more than enough time to see all of the lights at a leisurely pace but it’s possible you may need the two hours (or more) should you be into social media photography and what not.

I enjoyed the lights of Moonlight Forest. As it’s an annual winter event, I wonder if the lights to be displayed next year will be different or the same, overall. If it’ll basically be the same, I probably won’t be attending the event again.

With Moonlight Forest running until the beginning of 2020, here are some tips should you decide to go to the event:

• Go on a weekday to save a few bucks.
• If you’re into the IG culture, bring someone that’s willing to take photos for you as there are many photo opportunities at Moonlight Forest.
• SoCal isn’t a cold place in general, but The Arboretum is located on the foothills where you could see a bobcat and whatnot so dress yourself appropriately. (Translation: It won’t snow but it’ll be cold!)