Yesterday I met up with 34 other folks (and 2 dogs) from the Kern River Valley Hiking Club to hike up Mt. Hollywood. I've hiked with this great group on several occasions before. This hiking club goes way back when founder Ruby Jenkins first started hiking herself and wrote the books "Exploring the Southern Sierra [East and West Sides]". Ruby passed away last year but Glenn, Alice, and others have kept the group going. They sponsor a hike about twice/month and post their schedules online every 6 months or so. They are an organized yet laid-back and fun bunch of folks to hike with.
Mt. Hollywood rises up about 1,600 feet north of the city of Los Angeles. It is at the east end of the Santa Monica Mountains and is in the middle of a large park full of hiking trails, picnic areas, museums, golf course, the zoo, horse stables, etc. called Griffith Park. Mt. Hollywood is not the mountain that the famous Hollywood sign is on, this is Mount Lee immediately to the west of Mt. Hollywood. You can hike to its summit, too, which I may head back sometime soon to do. On the southern side of Mt. Hollywood is Griffith Observatory which was built in 1935 and is one of the most visited attractions in LA.
Since there was no traffic on a Saturday morning it took me less than an hour to drive to Griffith Park. I met other club members there at 10:00 am in the morning rain near the park carousel. But the rain was supposed to let up so with that we donned our parkas and ponchos and headed out and up the Fern Canyon Trail. Shortly afterwards the rain let up as promised and we began to get great views of the city and the observatory. Then as we began our ascent of the very steep Backbone Trail the fog seeped in and it began to rain again. So by the time we got on top of Mt. Hollywood we couldn't see a thing! But then magically the clouds parted for an instant and we saw downtown LA. Then another portal appeared giving us a glimpse of the famous Hollywood sign. Then we headed down and by the time we got to the observatory the rain completely cleared out and the rest of the afternoon was perfect weather for hiking. Clear and views all the way to the San Gabriel Mountains northward and the ocean westward.
We spent a couple of hours at the observatory eating lunch and seeing the exhibits. Then we re-convened and hiked back up to the summit where we were treated to better views this time. Some folks split off to go hike Mt. Lee. The rest of us took a road then a trail called the "Ankle Breaker" down towards the old LA Zoo. This trail wasn't too bad until the very end when it became Class 3 for a short stretch. Then we walked around the old zoo and then back to our cars.
In all we hiked about 7 miles with 1,800' elevation gain then loss. It was a nice challenging hike with great views, fun hiking partners, and beautiful spring green grass and wildflowers.
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