Welcome to Travel with Suri When developers put up a larger than
life advertisement for their new Los Angeles housing development in 1923
they had no idea it would become one of the most iconic landmarks of all time.
Originally intended to last for just 18 months,
this sign is fast approaching its 100th birthday
The hike is one of those iconic hikes that you need to do
at least once in your lifetime. Welcome to the Hollywood sign hike.
When you get to the trailhead, you can park in the big lot.
When I went there at 6:30 in the morning, only a handful of cars were there.
This lot will fill up quickly so try to go
and park early in the morning like before 7'o clock
The trailhead address is 3200 Canyon Drive, Los Angeles.
There is another second parking lot that is closer to the trailhead,
but this parking lot is smaller than the first one, so try for the closer one and
if it is full head back to the bigger first lot.
At the end of the road past the parking lot is a gate,
go around it and continue up the road.
Brush canyon trial is a seven mile out and back trial
with an elevation gain of around 1300 feet.
The trial is rated as moderate and primarily used for hiking
walking and trial running.
Keep walking straight past the gate and avoid any side roads,
eventually you will come to the concrete dam.
Stay on the wide dirt trail and avoid any small side trials. The trial steadily
climbs up towards the hollywood sign. Very beautiful morning, take your time
and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. You will be able to see the hollywood
sign in the distance for the first time in this hike.
At around one mile you will see the first overlook
and you will see the beautiful Los Angeles downtown in the distance.
At around 1.2 miles just above the overlook
brush canyon trial merges with mulholland fire road,
turn left and continue west towards mount lee.
There is a sign at this junction pointing you in the right direction.
At this junction keep heading straight because Holyridge trial coming up from
the Beachwood drive and the horse stables
at sunset ranch. So keep heading straight
At around 1.5 mile you will see a beautiful Los Angeles downtown.
Hike past another overlook and continue along mulholland
until the trial hits mount lee drive that's a 2.25 miles from the start.
If you want to make a short detour for some hollywood sign views,
make the left at mount lee road get your shots and continue on the hike
on the right side.
Let's see some fun facts about this sign. The first sign was built on mount lee in
1923 by los angeles times CEO harry chandler to advertise his new upscale
housing development called HOLLYWOODLAND.
Though the Los Angeles recreation and parks commission
wanted it completely torn down, the hollywood chamber of commerce had
different ideas. They offered to remove "LAND"
in 1949 then restore the remaining nine letters "HOLLYWOOD"
to promote the town.
What a historic landmark. The entire sign was replaced in 1978
after 50 years.
BEAUTIFUL! After taking pictures in front of hollywood sign turn right up
mount lee drive and follow the winding paved road to the summit gaining 430
feet in one mile.
The road eventually ascends to the north side of the mountain for a view over
burbank it's amazingly beautiful, the verdugo mountain and the san gabriel mountains.
The building and tower located behind and to the right of the sign
is the city of los angeles central communication facility
which supports all cell phone and radio towers used by the
LA police department also called LAPD and the fire department.
Since the hollywood sign sits atop a very steep hill and lacks
a safe infrastructure for visitors, the LA fire department characterized
this as an extremely high fire risk area and visitors are no longer able to walk
right up to the side, in order to safeguard the sign, a
security system was put in place complete with razor wire, infrared
technology, 24 hour monitoring alarms and helicopter patrols
Congratulations you just did the hollywood sign hike.
From here you will have an awesome 360 degree views of
los angeles downtown, hollywood downtown and hollywood reservoir. On a clear day
you will be able to see Catalina island out in the pacific ocean.
Amazing view, perfect weather for the hike.
You can have your breakfast or lunch or snacks whatever
and enjoy a 360 degree views of los angeles, burbank and hollywood
In 1976 it was changed to HOLLYWEED to celebrate changes to marijuana laws
Then it changed to HOLYWOOD when the pope visited in 1987.
If you want to see the bronson cave this one is just
0.5 mile round trip from the parking lot. Bronson cave is one of hollywood's
favorite filming locations. The man-made tunnel is carved into the
rock wall of an old quarry in Griffith Park. Bronson cave's most famous role came in
the 1960s playing the entrance of the bat cave in
the batman tv series. The cave continues to be cast in
television shows and movies. Thanks to a very short trial it's about
as easy to see bronson cave in real life as it is on screen.
The quick 0.5 mile of a round trip hike to branson cave has just
50 feet of elevation change so it's an easy outing to the batcave.
You will see another spectacular viewpoint from here.
I came back to the parking lot after two and a half hours of hiking
and the parking lot was full so if you are hiking
go early and do your hike.
I hope you liked my video, if you liked it
please subscribe it. Thank you so much for watching.
BYE