The Northeast Los Angeles Communities of Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Mount Washington, Glassell Park, Montecito Heights, Cypress Park, Lincoln Heights, Sycamore Grove, Hermon, El Sereno, Elysian Valley, Atwater Village are often referred to as communities of the "Arroyo Seco".
Geographically, the Arroyo Seco, literally "dry creek" in Spanish, is a great, long canyon that extends from the foot of the San Gabriel mountains north of Pasadena, southward along the western edge of South Pasadena. It skirts the Garvanza district, and continues south through Highland Park until it joins the Los Angeles river not far from Elysian Park. It is a terrain with intermittent stream, permanent ponds, and fertile flood-plain that has been a sanctuary for wildlife and humans for at least 8,000 years.
