36 hour LA Adventure – The Hollywood Sign Debacle
The Hollywood Sign Debacle
Last year I was lucky enough to win WEGO Health’s Rookie of the Year Award and it took my husband @shai-hulud and I to the US to attend the World Health Congress in Washington DC. If you have ever been through LAX, it’s my nightmare airport, so much so that rather than endure the stress of a transferring between flights I decided to do a stopover.
As such the 36 hour LA adventure was born.
You think I would start at hour one and move on from there but I am far from normal so this time we will start with the last 12 hours of the adventure. We had been planning this part since locking ourselves in our Air B&B basement in Baltimore after looking at the crime stats and the shootings in the last week outranked our last ten years.
We are hikers, as in we love nature and don’t mind walking. So we were thrilled that to get close to the sign, a decent hike was required. We choose the Brush Canyon Trail, a 6.4 miles round trip with 1,050 feet of elevation change.
This trail would have taken us by the Bronson Caves, a man-made cave in Griffith Park that is most famous for the Bat Cave in the 1960’s and has since been used for such films as Army of darkness, Scorpion King, more Batman, a Star Trek and many other well know movies and series.
Best Laid Plans
The trip should have looked like this. We had to check out of our hotel at 11 am and wouldn't have access to a room until we arrived back in Perth 24 hours later, so the fact that LA was in a heat wave was not a great start. To save ourselves a small portion of the trip we had decided to catch an Uber to the start of the trail, a mere 2.4 miles and ten minutes from our hotel. So at 11 am we left our luggage in a somewhat questionable hotel clerk and got in an Uber Pool vehicle.
The trip actually looked like. Just under an hour later our Uber driver declared he was lost and dropped us at the nearest viewpoint, which happened to be The Griffith Observatory, an 8.8 miles round trip, the exact distance it would have been if we had just walked from our hotel. It would have taken us less time to walk the 2.4 miles than it took the Uber driver to get lost and drop us in the wrong place. The most annoying thing was that we had to bypass Bronson Caves and missed seeing an iconic piece of Hollywood.
The Full Debacle
Not to be deterred from our original goal of reaching the Hollywood sign before getting on the plane that evening we set off from our new start point in a somewhat frustrated mood. This soon moved into a WTF were you thinking mood as the heat increased and the winding trail seemed to never end.
I mean we have seen the sign did we really need to see it close up...
View from the Observatory
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Besides being a perfect viewpoint for those not wanting to hike to the Hollywood Sign, the Observatory is pretty astronomical in its own right. It was opened in1935 and was the vision of Griffith J. Griffith, who left a directive in his will when he donated the land to the City of Los Angeles to build not only the observatory but a planetarium and an exhibit hall full of science and space-related displays. All with the goal to make astronomy accessible to the average person, which is why to this day there is no admission fee.
Warnings along the way
In Australia, we have our fair share of deadly animals but rattlesnakes are not on that list. I find it slightly amusing that a deadly snake has a tail that could be mistaken as a baby's toy.
Halfway!
Celebrate! Actually, there was no celebrating, there was, however, no turning back as either way entailed a long dusty walk. It was also quiet, we passed many people walking back and others walking slower than we had time too, however, no one said hello to each other and often no acknowledgement was given when we said hello. At first, you could pass this off as maybe they didn't hear us but even after speaking up and trying the ever jolly "G'Day" we were lucky to get a response from one in ten groups we passed and even then it was one person in the group not the group as a whole that responded.
Made it!
It looked much bigger in real life... I promise...
A hot sweaty mess but we made it, we had planned to walk right to the top and view the sign from behind it but due to time and water limitations, we decided to cut our losses and venture back down through the Hollywood Hills.
This throne was found outside this amazing fairy garden, unfortunately, it was closed and had signs asking you not to take images without being granted entry. In Australia, not many decorate for Halloween so it was super fun seeing all the houses.
I couldn't help myself...
At the base of the hills we got a bit lost and decided to take the risk an Uber out, I know what were we thinking...
Although she did not get lost with us in the car, she did get lost on the way to pick us up and took 15 minutes longer than planned and then had the audacity to lecture us about how locals hated having tourists in the Hollywood Hills and why didn't we do something better with our time like visit the museums.
Didn't we know we could have seen the sign from Airport drive...
I can tell you that after the first Uber trip, the extended hike and the heat I was not in the mood to be lectured about what we should be doing on our whirlwind trip. I told her we would have to agree to disagree and didn't speak the remainder of the trip to the hotel. By this point, I was so annoyed with Uber that we sourced the bus to the airport, saved ourselves loads of money and still arrived at the airport in time for dinner before flying out.
In short, yes she was correct you can see the Hollywood sign from the airport but that is not the same as seeing it close up. We set ourselves a goal and achieved it in spite of the challenges faced. It was worth it and a win for the good guys. As always thanks for reading.
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Nice narration and editing of the post! I really liked the pace of it @insideoutlet.
Wish to go visit Hollywood soon!
I hope you get to Hollywood, its an interesting place thats for sure.
hahaha this post made me laugh, especially your map of intending drop spot versus actual drop spot lol
Years ago I was there and tried to drive to see how close we could make it to the iconic sign, but we were having Uber luck and ended up in Compton instead haha. Windows up, doors locked, no eye contact!
I've noticed many places in the States (Yes, I know this is a generalization and not intended to tick anyone off :), where simple greetings are non-existent. Brian and I sound like you guys...although it's not "g'day", but a similar "Hey" gets you nothing in a lot of places. Makes me wonder what's happened to common courtesy? Not to mention the Uber driver..geez!
Thanks for taking us on this crazy trip of yours! Again, like us, it's nice to see you guys just went with the flow! :)
Haha omg yes lock the doors and head down lol... I'm not sure if it is the whole of the US but all the places we visited seemed to lack the curiosity to respond when talked to them, a super odd experience coming from Oz. Well the west, I'm sure Melbourne and Sydney have super busy people too with no time respond but here we are pretty laid back, so going with the flow is a must. Im not always great with changes to my plans but when you have no choice but to suck it up, its no use letting the past ruin the future.
"but when you have no choice but to suck it up, its no use letting the past ruin the future."
So true...and I might add, no use letting it ruin the present too!
Even in Canada, the west Coast, Vancouver, is still a major city, but more friendly than Toronto for example. At least in my experience. It seems weird that "super busy people", success, and progress equates with less friendly and social. Something's been lost along the way I think.
Exactly true! Yeah I think our East coast is probably way too busy to reply to people on the streets too lol. I hope I never get busy for that.
I have seen this Hollywood sign in GTA game. I used to roam a lot around it in the game. You have done it in reality. 😊 Nice to see that you had so much of fun. 😁
Thanks @bala41288, this made me giggle as my hubby also has played GTA. Its funny seeing things in real life that you see on movies/games. We also made it to New York and Washington. Now when we watch things its like yay ive seen that for real.
Yes, it is so true @insideoutlet. Watching things for real makes a huge difference than a virtual experience.
I loved the whole trip! That sign is so famous, many of us would like to be there, but after reading you, I see it's not that easy! Even so I do not lose hope lol, thank you for sharing your adventure, by the way they look beautiful in pairs
Thanks @melvadg, I was surprised that you couldn't just drive straight up to it as in the movies you never see them hije the hour to sit on the sign. A technical impossibility as its illegal to get that close. But reality and movies never match perfectly.
Hollywood! I've researched this hike before and it was truly far far away. Hahaha congratulations on making it. :) I'm not sure if I can survive the heat even if I am from a tropical country. ^^
In all honesty we had no clue you had to hike to it initially, the movies look like you can drive up and just pop out at the sign. Its doable but qould have been much more pleasant on a cooler day but when you only have 36 hours, you take what you can get. 😁
I feel you! Hahahha! You're a pretty strong hiker so this isn't an issue at all! I"m glad you were able to insert this on a short time frame.
Haha, yeah we arent bad hikers although we try to avoid heat waves as dehydration can land me in hospital pretty quick. They had water refuel staations but they were surrounded by bees lol. Not worth the risk lol.
Boom! Yes, I definitely agree, best that you bring your own stuff for drinking! I'm not sure if the heat wave there is worse here. Fortunately, I have not heard of any deaths because of it this summer.
Where is here? Death by heatwave would be a very bad way to go.
Wow. One of my dream place to go in another side of globe. Thank you for sharing your experience. Cheers. Next time maybe you can use travelfeed tag for similar post.
I didnt think of the #travelfeed tag. Thanksfor the reminder. I have a few more of these to post, none so frustrating but more travel posts.
Where in the world do you live?
Sure. Can use for next travel post for sure.
I am from the another half globe of Malaysia, a place called Sabah. But for sure you will familiar with words Borneo.
I know Sabah, we actually honemooned on Gaya Island just off of Kota Kinabalu and have been back to Malaysia since but not down that far. We do have plans to come back but have a son coming in a week or so, so not sure when now.
Wow.. Great that you been in Gaya island. It is really one of the great place to be.
Ok. Just let me know when you and your family are coming. Hope to see you in future for sure. Keep in touch..
Thanks, @bboyady, have a good weekend.
Cheers. Have a great weekend.
Omg what an awesome adventure you guys had.... never been to the states its always somewhere I have wanted to go, an especially at halloween because I know they go overboard for it. Thanks for sharing.
Thatnks for stopping by here and the@asapers post promo. I have more images of the Halloweeen decorations from Washington DC. Ill have to find them. Maybe do up a post at Halloween. It will be upon us in no time.
What an interesting trip you had there! Uber stuff, free lecture?LOL. And of course, the Hollywood sign, nothing better than seeing it . That rattlesnake warning sign might made me freak out more and look around to see if there is any of them nearby. Gosh...
Haha we did have a look around but given we have more deadly animals around our normal hiking haunt, it was a little funny.
Although we do have some signs starting the dangers its not common, neither is coming across the critters it warns you of.
Glad you sort of made it there and back okay. You are actually not the first person I have heard of that has gotten lost trying to get a view of the sign. Apparently there is a park that is supposed to give you a great view but doesn't. If you go to this other park that gives no indication it has anything to do with the sign, you get an amazing view. Who knew. I'd take a rattlesnake any day over the critters you guys have down under. At least you get a warning with a rattle snake!
Haha that is so true, there is a warning, something you could miss if you weren't on the ball while hiking in Oz. We have come across many of these critters on our adventures. Generally so long as you stay away ftom them, they will avoid you. So we just take sticks and whack them on the ground while walking. The vibration is often enough to scare them away before you even see them.
Very nice!
This is such a fantastic write up. The photos are excellent.
Thanks. It was a fun yet very tiring day.