Hollywood Sign to Sweet Salt

We decided to just go a bit beyond the Orange curtain to the beginning of the Santa Monica Mountains to hike to the infamous Hollywood sign at the top of Mount Lee on this very last day of 2015.  Yes, 48 years on this planet and I have never hiked to the Hollywood sign, well that is being remedied today.  TBs and TSs hiking with me today, are my kids and my kids’ backup mom, Peggy, and her gaggle of kids, Haley, Kate and Quinn.  You would think taking a 14 year old, 2 16 year olds, and 2 almost 21 year olds with you, would result in an almost peaceful car ride to LA, but no, not the case.  My next car will have a tinted privacy window right behind the front seats.  Luckily for us, to get to the trailhead, it only took us 30 minutes.  We parked in a dirt parking lot along Canyon Drive in Los Angeles (if you want to map to this location, use 3200 Canyon Drive as your destination).  We arrived around 10 am to a fairly empty parking lot, which FYI does have a porta potty and trash cans, grabbed our waters and headed out.

 

We excursioned (yes I know it is not a word, but I like it) to the Bronson Caves, which is right above the parking lot and about .2 miles up.  These caves have been used in many movies, the latest (according to Wikipedia) is Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus.  Yeah, I haven’t seen it either, and I am pretty sure it isn’t in my Netflix queue.  However, the caves were pretty cool, surprisingly not covered in graffiti, and once through them, someone has made a cool pathway of rocks on the other side, kinda yellow brick roadish, definitely not in Kansas anymore.  When we rounded the caves on the outside, we had a great view of the Hollywood sign, probably the best picture I have of it from this day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After returning to the road from the caves, we headed up Canyon Drive, which is blocked off from cars and turns into a dirt access road.  A couple of trees line the road at the beginning of the hike, but once above the trees, it is fairly exposed, so doing this hike in the summer probably would be best in the early morning.  Not far into our ascent I found the first mark of “we are hiking in the city” graffiti, sad and irritating.  But I took a few photos for you to enjoy too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At about 1.8 miles, according to Modern Hiker, we came to intersection of Mulholland Highway and some words of encouragement, and here we turned left.  We had a view over downtown LA and could see Palos Verde in the background, it was fairly hazy so the pictures aren’t the best.  There are quite a lot of people doing this hike, although there are many ways to head up to the sign, so it wasn’t overly packed.  We all, except Kolby, met up at a bench overlooking the view and the Griffith Observatory.  Apparently, we were a bit slow for Kolby, and he was way ahead of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So at this point, he received a phone call from me (cell service rocks sometimes) and I told him to wait at the next junction (kinda reminds me of Shana).  About a mile after we turned on to this road, we dead end into Mount Lee Drive, I told everyone we are headed to the right, which is up and headed away from the sign.  I get stares, but not too much flack, and up we go.  We have to get to the peak!!  Now Mount Lee Drive, takes you up and around the back of the peak to summit, so now you get gorgeous views of Burbank and the San Gabriels.  See, totally worth the up!!

At this point, Kolby looks at me and says he has been here before, just like the Main Divide road on our hike in Trabuca Canyon.  I look at him like he is on crack.  He proceeds to tell me that he drives up here in Grand Theft Auto, his xbox game (don’t judge me as a parent, I will parent as I see fit, and he promises me he doesn’t go into the strip clubs).   So now I am thinking of having him make me a list of all the places he “drives” to, so we can visit them in person, at least most of them.  It was quite chilly on this side the mountain, as it sheltered us from the sun, probably a great feeling in the summer months.

Almost a mile up, we came to the fence that surrounds the sign, of which we are now standing behind.  I got a great picture of the HO, or the OH, depending how you see it.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking up, we see Kolby at the top, and continued on up.  Lots of people!  But we reveled in our achievement, took our photos, chowed on trail mix, and now started wondering where we are going to eat lunch.   Yes, all about the food!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed down the same way we came, also in the same fashion, where Kolby was nowhere to be seen.  So he got another phone call from me, telling him to stop at the next junction.  Nothing like wondering where your son went, did he go down the wrong road?  Breaking news at 4, tourists from the OC got lost while hiking to the Hollywood sign.  Probably should install the Uber app on his phone…

 

We took some more pictures of the sign before rounding a corner on Mulholland Highway.  Like my black and whites?  Sort of Hollywoodish?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We encountered a convoy of horse riders on the Highway, and as long as they weren’t dropping loads, they didn’t bother me too much.  We hit the car at about 1 pm, about 3 hours of hiking, including to stop and ah the views.  It wasn’t difficult nor strenuous as the steep wasn’t too drastic. When we returned, the parking lot was full as well as the parking on the street, quite a tight squeeze to drive out if other cars were coming in.

 

 

Once we hit cell service, Peggy found a 4 star eatery on Yelp in Toluca Lake to have lunch, Sweet Salt.  I know, most of you, were thinking Sweet Salt wine?  But I changed it up a bit as we had the under-agers with us. This is a fairly large strip mall restaurant on Riverside Drive.  The twins and Peggy had the short rib, goat cheese, grilled onions on brioche, Kari had turkey bacon avocado on ciabatta, Quinn had the steak and brie on ciabatta, Kolby had the shrimp po’ boy and yours truly had the buffalo chicken wrap.  All sandwiches came with a side of argula mixed greens lightly tossed in a light yummy vinaigrette.  I may not remember you, but I will remember what you ate!

All of us were very happy with the meal, so much so, that I only got one photo of the event.  Stuffed and ready to head back to the Orange bubble, we checked Waze and realized it was going to take us an hour and half to get home.  Sigh!  ONE and HALF hours in the car with the kids, luckily we only had to make one pee stop, as one of the kids didn’t pee prior to leaving the restaurant.  One would figure they would have learn by this age, especially since nature was calling in not the safest neighborhoods off of the of 5 freeway.  Alas, we survived and were home by 4:30 pm, after stopping for some late night snacks of king crab legs from Costco, yes, we needed to leave 2015 with a bang and some good wine.  Happy New Years!!

Stats: 16,461 steps, 125 flights of stairs, 1 liter of water, no blisters, 2 bottles of wine – Pine Ridge Rutherford Cab, Justin Isoceles, 2nd place of Grand Theft Auto off of the list.