Griffith Park is a huge park in the Hollywood hills which separate central Los Angeles and Hollywood from the San Fernando Valley. It encompasses much of that range and is reputedly the largest urban park and open space in the United States. It has numerous hiking trails, trails for bicycle riding, and horseback riding, and other amenities. It also is home to the iconic Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory. One can reach the park many ways, including by driving into the partly, but traffic and parking can be problematic. We avoid driving and take the DASH Observatory bus which makes a circuit through part of the park to and from Vermont and Sunset, where the is a Metro station, making it quite convenient to get to the park that way. The bus stops at, among others, the Greek Theatre, Mt Hollywood Dr on the far side of the Mt. Hollywood Tunnel, and Griffith Observatory. At Mt Hollywood Dr, there is immediate access to several hiking trails which go through the park, and also Mt. Hollywood Dr, generally open only to hiking,etc., and not to automobile traffic. This is one route to take to hike to the Hollywood Sign, and connects directly to a trail which goes up above, and behind, the sign, or to the Mulholland Trail, also used for horseback tours, which takes one to just below, and in front of, the sign. Depending on how fast one does it, the hike to and from the sign, starting at the Mt. Hollywood Dr bus stop near the observatory, should probably take between about 50 minutes to an hour and half each way. The area affords nice views of Los Angeles as well.

Amazing Park to relax and to see Los Angelos from top. We started the trip from Los Angelos Zoo by ascending to the top of hill - there are water refill stations with fresh tasty water if you get thirsty. At the top of the hill, it was quiet, and you could relax watching eagles. As you get closer to Griffith observatory, you start to see sign of Hollywood. And from Griffith observatory there is a bus free of charge that will take you to the metro station. Griffith Park info station was kind of open, but nobody was inside, so it was more like on self-serve basis. The fun fact - after walking and walking around the park at the end we stumbled on a sign which warned about rattle snakes in park, but we did not see any snakes.

One of my favorite places on my first trip to LA was Griffith Park so I had to bring my friends. Two of the best things to see in the park are the Griffith Observatory and Mount Hollywood, which is the peak directly opposite the observatory and one of the highest points in the Hollywood Hills, so it has great views of the city. However, Mount Hollywood is not the same peak with the sign, but you do get some great views of the sign hiking between the observatory and the peak. Also parking here, there are public restrooms before you start or when you return. It is one of the perfect urban hikes at 2.5 miles with 500 feet of elevation gain. There is also free parking if you go early before the observatory opens. We went on the last morning of our vacation so we could make the hike and get back to our hotel to shower before hotel check out. It is great exercise and the best way to start the day. The day we hiked was not as clear as my first visit, so the views were not as crisp. Despite this the clouds and humidity, you still had great views and this time the moisture meant there was more greenery and flower for the hike. In late March the hike was cool but not cold so simply perfect. Everyone in our group of 12 loved the hike with incredible views of the observatory, downtown and the "Hollywood" sign. I cannot recommend this more, both times it was my favorite activity in LA.

Really nice walk with a Meetup Group. I think total we walked almost 6 miles. One of the group members knew little tidbits about the park, so it made it a better walk. The trail is moderately challenging since there are parts that are either a steep incline or decline (my foot slid a couple of times). However, I think about half of our steps were fairly level and path was very pretty clear. I felt like my tennis shoes were adequate. There was also a couple of water points and picnic areas. There were definitely some incredible views of LA and even the hillside was very lovely. Looking forward to next hike.

We came to Griffith Park on a Sunday morning to partake in Cars & Coffee which occurs every month (last Sunday of the month). It’s advertised online. It was a lovely Sunday morning, easy to park & walk over to see a good selection of old and well loved vehicles from the US as well as a large number of imports. The vehicle owners were all very approachable & are clearly passionate about their cars with some immaculately presented vehicles. We spent about 90mins there, under the cool protection of the trees. A lovely morning!

This park has a little bit of everything in it. There are picnic areas, a playground, hiking trails, a theater and of course, the iconic Griffith Observatory. There is even a cafe and nature center on the west side of the park. There are also three parking lots and street parking. The parking lot down by the nature center is free all the time and I was able to find a spot there at 9am on a Saturday morning and there were still some spots at 11:30 when I left (for some reason people were ignoring the lots and looking for street parking). The trails are nice and wide, though I would have appreciated more signage. I had a great time.