Hooray for Hollywood

My favorite walk/hike is a loop that includes stair climbs, walking on pavement, hiking on trails, beautiful views and Hollywood history. It starts in upper Beachwood Canyon and goes past the Hollywood sign into Griffith Park.

'They're paving Beachwood Drive from Franklin Avenue to the Portals of Hollywoodland…' announced an ad in 1922. In fact, the famous Hollywood sign had a rather unglamorous origin. It started its life in the 1920s as a giant advertisement for a housing subdivision called Hollywoodland. The developers, including Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, ordered a huge wooden sign built atop Mt. Lee. It was never kept in the best repair, and letters frequently blew down. Finally, in 1978, celebrities pledged $27,777.77 a letter to restore the sign to its former glory with 50-foot high sheetmetal letters. This walk/hike will bring you close to the sign.

Head up Beachwood Canyon Drive toward the Hollywood sign. After passing the Gothic sandstone gates, park on the street near the coffee shop and the market. Inside the market are enlarged photos. One shows a stairway with a fountain in its center. The fountains were shut off but the stairs are there, waiting for you to make your first ascent. Walk up Beachwood, and turn left at Woodshire Drive. The stairway from the photo is here. It is time to start climbing. At the top, turn left and follow Belden Drive around the curve until the first intersection (Rodgerton Drive). Stay to the left on Belden. To the right of 2917 Belden is another stairway to climb. At the top, turn left onto Durand Drive. Continue past the sharp turn (Flagmore Drive) toward what looks like a castle wall on the right side of Durand. Follow the castle wall around its base, and just to the right of the entrance to 2869 Durand is a view of Lake Hollywood.

In the early ‘20s, City Engineer William Mulholland planned to submerge Holly Canyon for a new dam. Residents felt threatened and outraged. They fought the proposed project, but neither the Hollywood Chamber nor the Hollywood Citizen newspaper could dissuade the L.A. Bureau of Water Works (now the Department of Water and Power) from creating a reservoir in the canyon.

Start down the trail leading to Lake Hollywood. You will see another trail branching off to the right. Follow that along the hillside until you reach a driveway and see a wall on your right. This used to be the home of Madonna. It had a distinctive paint job, but this has been replaced by a more pedestrian color scheme. On the paved road, turn right and continue up the hill. Near Madonna's former abode is an overlook featured in the Michael Connelly murder mystery called The Overlook. You will pass a house on the left with a driveway that leads to a trail passing through a finger of Griffith Park. When you reach the top of the road, turn left on Mullholland Highway. In the ‘20s, this was a long dirt road winding across the top of the mountains. Gregory Paul Williams, author of The Story of Hollywood, writes that many locals sneered at the Mulholland Highway. 'While real estate people drooled over the high-priced new hilltop property, old-timers called Mulholland Highway ‘the road to nowhere.'' On this walk, however, the road goes somewhere and that somewhere is Griffith Park.

Follow the road around to the right, past houses on one side and the Hollywood sign on the other. You will soon glimpse a dirt road leading into the park. A sharp left will take you onto the trails of Griffith Park, namely Mulholland Trail. Walk east until you can see a stable below. This is Sunset Ranch. Take the trail going down.

You will pass a junction with a trail heading up to the right. This trail goes to Mt. Lee and the Hollywood sign-always a nostalgic hike for me because, when my father was an up-and-coming radio comedy writer in early-1940s Hollywood, he would often hike up to the Hollywood sign with his pal Charlie. Just short of the Mt. Lee summit, as the road makes a sharp left bend, you can see a narrow, steep trail climbing to the top of Griffith Park's newly acquired Cahuenga Peak. If you do not crave the additional exercise, stay on the downhill trail, the Hollyridge Trail. A bridle path on your right leads down to the stables. Don't take it. Keep to the main trail until you reach the paved road and the Hollyridge Trail sign.

Now you are at the upper end of Beachwood Canyon Drive. Turn left and walk down Beachwood, enjoying the houses. Soon you will find yourself in front of Beachwood Market once again. The coffee shop nearby is cozy and charming, a good stop for lunch and a perfect end to my favorite outing.