Hike The Hollywood Sign

            I grew up in Hollywood but never got a chance to hike up to the Hollywood sign. I thought to myself it should be a piece of cake finding the trail. Boy was I wrong!! GPS was failing to do its job; nothing but dead ends. Through persistence by not giving up easily we spotted this nice young gentleman who gave us directions to the sign. "Take Franklin and turn right on Beachwood and you should see the trail for the big sign," he directed. Great!!! We're about halfway there and I know we're getting closer but we're still not sure which street to take up. Are we confused? Yes. excited and anxious? Yes. Are we actually going to think about giving up? Not! Are you nuts?

 

            The residents in that area didn't like to be bothered by outsiders. We decided to ask this one older gentleman if he knew the way up to the sign. He sharply replied and told me there is absolutely no way to the sign; if you want to see the sign, you would have to take photos by standing on the curb and zoom in. His response didn't convince me one bit, BOO to you too! At this point I was very determined to get to the sign! I knew it had to be near and I wasn't about to give up and let my children down. With some trial & error, we found the tight, narrow street leading up to the sign. We continued straight north on Beachwood like we should have, as this street took us straight to the parking entrance to the hiking trail. There was free parking in an unpaved dirt road, but it’s not very big, so try an get there early. (Be aware that this is a fairly tight one way road. I remember another car and I came face to face, so I had no choice but to slowly back up (not the easiest thing to do in that small of an area), but we both some how managed to pull through it.

 We knew that we had arrived at the trail head when we saw a sign that was hand written and had two boards: one said 'Hollywood Sign' with arrows pointing to the right and another said 'Horse Trail' pointing to the left. We heard from some that were hiking back to their cars that it was going to be a 2 mile hike going up to the sign (Say, about a good hour with three kids and grandma). Nothing was going to stop us now, not even my cowboy boots hehe. 

            Our hike finally started and I would have to say it was a moderately easy trail, not to mention you will encounter lots of horse poop in the first part of the hike. The inclines are slightly steep, but remember it’s a great workout; it was wide enough for hikers and horses to pass through. I had to be real watchful with my youngest since the sides of the trail can have steep drop-offs so you need to stay near the trail centers with your younger explorers.



1. Do bring at least one bottle of water per person, 

2.Wear a light weight jacket it can get a bit breezy up there.

    3.Sunscreen is also a must you don’t want to get a sun burn ouch!

   4. My mother started vomiting at a higher elevation, so please pack accordingly before    you leave the house. No need to over pack really.

   5. Elevation could be from 800 to 1600 ft. I would have to say ours had to be 1600 ft

            The horse stable on the left is right by the trail and there are horseback riding's being offered to those who don’t wish to hike. I love riding horses but only on flat ground and not around cliffs; it honestly scares me, but that's just me. We are continuing with our hike and we encountered some cool looking wild plants and a lizard lounging on a rock. Don't forget to bring your camera because you never know what you might see!

            We are almost there and the dirt trail turns into a paved asphalt trail. After continuing with our hiking we looked out from the hill top where we could see the Forest Lawn Cemetery. Just an amazing sight to witness from up above....





           We're all pretty excited at this point. Every 10 minutes would be the most infamous phrase heard by all mothers on long trips: "Moooom are we there yet!?" Less than 10 minutes later we saw a restricted area in front of us. That's where the fenced up famous iconic Hollywood sign is! We're finally here! We couldn't stop "Wow"-ing, "Oooo"-ing, and "Awww"-ing. This went on for a good five minutes.

Later, Anthony discovered a dirt path on the left of the fenced up Hollywood sign road, so we all climbed up the ridge trail all the way to the Wisdom Tree at the end where we discovered the panoramic views of L.A. & the Inland Empire. The children were proud of themselves for making the hike all the way up to the sign and I was also proud of them and my mother for not quitting on me. I tried to take a photograph of the Hollywood sign but it is so large that it is difficult to photograph the whole sign at once! This is a sight not to be missed! Most definitely a breath taking sight indeed.

 I found this to be HILARIOUS! As if it was some kind of pride he was holding.



Ristricted Area! Don't think about climbing over the fence!

Hiking back down, we continued going right to see the front of the Hollywood Sign. That's as close as you can get. This was the best hike I have ever done! What better company than your kids & grandma--they loved it!