Day Trip Ideas

Day trip · By car

A Day with the Benedictines at St. Andrew's Abbey

The Benedictine monks of Valyermo, in the high desert beyond Pearblossom, pray the Divine Office five times a day and welcome anyone who wants to join them. This is a day shaped by their bell: the noon Mass, an afternoon of silence, the Stations of the Cross and spiritual reading on the grounds, and Vespers before the drive home. It works any day of the week.

Prayer and Mass times checked September 16, 2026 against the abbey's own daily schedule, which also gives its rule on picnics. The outdoor Stations of the Cross are from our own visits; the abbey's site does not describe them. Sundays and feast days can move the Mass, so ask the abbey before a Sunday.

1. 9:30AM

   Leave Los Angeles

   Valyermo is in the high desert on the far side of the San Gabriels: the 14 north, Pearblossom Highway east, then Valyermo Road up into the foothills. Allow an hour and three quarters from downtown. Bring your own lunch and plenty of water, since there is nowhere to buy either once you leave Pearblossom Highway, and bring a Bible or a book worth an afternoon. Agree in the car that phones stay in pockets once you arrive.

2. 11:15AM

   Arrive at the abbey

   Park, find the chapel, and get your bearings while it is still quiet. The gift shop on the grounds sells the abbey's hand-made ceramics, the saints and angels the monks are known for, along with books and religious gifts. If you need a book for the afternoon, this is where to find one.

3. 12:00PM

   Conventual Mass

   The community's daily Mass in the monastery chapel. The abbey's own words: guests are always welcome to join us, at Mass and at every hour of prayer.

4. 1:00PM

   The lunch you brought

   The abbey does not allow picnics on its grounds, and its own lunch at 12:50 is served to retreat guests. So eat in the cars or at a pull-off on Valyermo Road below the gate, and ask the Retreat Office in advance if you would rather join the guests' table. Charlie Brown Farms on Pearblossom Highway, a fruit stand since 1929, is there on the way home for anyone who wants a date shake.

5. 1:45PM

   The Stations of the Cross

   The fourteen Stations are set out along a walk on the abbey grounds, so they are prayed on foot, in the open air. Go as a group and take turns reading, or go alone and take it slowly. It is about half an hour at a walking pace, and it sets the tone for what follows.

6. 2:30PM

   Silence and solitude

   From 1:30 to 4 the monks are at their work and the grounds are at their quietest. Scatter. Find a bench, a patch of shade, a corner of the chapel, and stay there with your book and no phone. The abbey's own words for what it is for: a place for anyone to step away from their busy life to be renewed in spirit. Give it a full two hours; the first half hour is the hard part.

7. 5:00PM

   Lectio Divina

   The monks spend 5 to 5:30 in Lectio Divina, the slow, prayerful reading of Scripture that they call the heart of a monk's prayer. Do the same, wherever you are sitting. Their guide to how it is done is linked above; read it in the car on the way up.

8. 5:30PM

   Vespers

   The evening office, chanted, and after an afternoon of silence you will hear it differently. The abbey has been a home for singers and musicians for generations, and it shows.

9. 6:00PM

   The drive home

   Down the hill with the desert light going, and the first conversation since lunch. If you stay on, Compline is at 7:30 PM, and after that it is properly dark on Pearblossom Highway.