Griffith Park Circuit

The urban wilderness above downtown Los Angeles

Hiking at Griffith Park is kind of like the outdoorsy equivalent of going to run laps around the track. It beats the treadmill at the gym, provides some fresh air, and has decent scenery, at least from an urban perspective. It's never going to provide that amazing, calm, and satisfying feeling of really getting out in the wilderness. You're almost never going to have it to yourself. But when you live in LA, and the freeways are jammed on a holiday weekend, it beats the heck out of a lot of other ways to spend an afternoon.

So, today I took a 6mi, 1100' loop route, starting from the parking area near the Merry Go Round. I'd been to this area before (bittersweet memories), but never on this particular path, which took me to the top of Mt. Bell, then circled back past Mt. Hollywood to Fern Canyon. Here's a map:


I celebrated completion of my weeklong qualifying exam (results pending) with one of my world famous breakfasts, so I was feeling good.


With some more aggressive hiking than I've been doing lately planned for the upcoming weeks, I figured I'd use the opportunity to test my fitness a little bit. 1100' over 3mi is nothing crazy, but it's not trivial either, particularly when you decide to hammer the pace. I made it to the top of Mt. Bell in about 50 minutes, so I felt pretty good. The view from there was nice, and it seems much less visited than nearby Mt. Hollywood. This lizard hanging out on the rock was my only company for lunch:


After lunch I took my time coming down the bottom half of the loop, enjoying the scenery along the way. Total trip time: 2.5 hours.

Mt. Bell summit