On our recent New Year’s trip to L.A., we got to the city at dusk just in time to enjoy one of my favorite things about Southern California: The seemingly endless views of Los Angeles at night.
I lived in Los Angeles for several years and there’s so much that I love about the city. For one, LA is huge! There’s no end to the interesting things there are to see in LA and neighborhoods to explore. At night, it seems to go on on forever. I love to gaze at the city from above and try to identify the different neighborhoods, freeways, and landforms based on the patterns of light and dark.
Looking out over Downtown L.A. from Griffith Observatory, 2005
My favorite view of Los Angeles after dark is the one from historic Griffith Observatory. From this vantage point on the top of the hill you can see Downtown L.A., Century City, the Hollywood sign, most of the city’s major freeways and arterial streets, and on clear nights, all the way to the Port of Los Angeles and the Palos Verdes peninsula.
On this trip, we weren’t able to get all the way up to Griffith Observatory because of the New Years crowds–parking up there is tough on normal weekend evenings, on holiday weekends it’s even worse. So we veered off a side road and headed part of the way down Western Canyon Road to a point where we had this awesome view: Griffith Observatory (on the left), Downtown Los Angeles (center), and Hollywood and the Los Angeles basin (on the right).
Zooming into the basin, I could pick out the faint outline of the hills of the Palos Verdes Peninsula off in the distance. And the brightly lit road to the right of this photo is Western Avenue, one of L.A.’s longest streets. It starts right there at the entrance to Griffith Park and ends on the coastal cliffs of San Pedro, more than 30 miles away [ map ].
Visiting Griffith Park Observatory
2800 East Observatory Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Admission to the observatory, grounds and parking is free, but parking is very limited at the top of the hill. When parking at the observatory is full, you can park for free at the base of the hill (at the Greek Theater) and walk up. During the day, there are great hiking trails through the hills that take you to one of the best views of the Hollywood sign. And don’t miss the observatory which is free and open, Tuesday through Sunday.
Hi Cassie, very interesting! – Although I’ve never been in California, actual all my “Dreaming Of California” starts with Southern California AND Los Angeles! – If I would fly to California for the very first time, I probably would choose the airport LAX (my “little” brother would choose San Francisco …hahaha). – Maybe it’s because some important “heroes of my youth” lived in L..A., for instance: The Doors, Charles Bukowski and last but not least MARILYN MONROE ! 🙂 – I know people which visited Los Angeles and they don’t like this city (they prefer San Francisco). Maybe Los Angeles is not a “beauty”, but surely very fascinating!!?? – I’ve read German travel blogs about visting Los Angeles without renting any car, instead just by using busses, the metro (subway), a bicycle and walking. – Is this really possible? – There’s a German “mythos” about Los Angeles: It’s a “CAR-town”, no chance without a car! – WHAT do YOU think? – Matthias
Hi Matthias! LA is a fine place to start your California journey 🙂 LA’s public transit system is really good considering the size of the city, and while you can definitely see a lot of the urban areas (Downtown, Hollywood, Santa Monica) without a car, it is much easier to explore the scenic beach cities and the hills (including Griffith Park) with a car. It’s possible to get around, but I’d give yourself a few extra days to make up for the added transit time. But I’ll help you plan your car-free adventure when you’re ready to plan your trip 🙂
Hi Cassie! Before I’ll make the trip myself, Bobbel Boy & Bobbeline will check this place. 🙂 – This is my idea: They arrive at LAX, then they take the shuttle bus to this hostel https://www.hostelz.com/hostel/2389-HI—Los-Angeles—Santa-Monica-Hostel. They will stay there for about 2-3 days. They will WALK to Hollywood and they’ll try to find the last home of Marilyn Monroe in Brentwood (M.M. lived not far away from St. Monica Beach! 🙂 Hey my comic-story needs action! hahaha). The next days they will rent bicycles because they want to bike along the beaches – SOUTH BAY BICYCLE TRAIL – heading for Orange County (Newport Beach, maybe even San Diego). When they are tired or lazy they will take the train (Amtrak “Pacific Surfliner”). – Doesn’t this sound realistic??? Don’t forget they are youngsters and they have not enough money for renting expensive cars…:)
That’s a great hostel choice 🙂 That’s a long walk to Hollywood, but I feel like they can do it. The South Bay Bicycle Trail (“The Strand”) ends at Torrance Beach, here: https://goo.gl/maps/vQBZR7Z2gKz. Doing the round trip back and forth to Santa Monica is a great day trip. To continue around the coast, they would need to switch to surface streets and then back to Pacific Coast Highway near the LA harbor. It’s not always a very scenic route, but some long-term bike touring travelers do it, but it probably wouldn’t be that comfortable on a rented bike. Amtrak from LA to San Diego is really nice (pretty seaviews through Southern Orange County), and the bus is a somewhat cheaper option. Definitely Greyhound, possibly Bolt Bus or Megabus–I’m not sure.
Thanks! 🙂 OK – Maybe they’ll take the bus (or something else) from the hostel to Hollywood, but they could walk to Marilyn Monroe’s last house (12305 5th Helena Drive, Brentwood). It’s just about 4 miles from the hostel (google maps), they are young and healthy. 🙂 But how could they get to the Hollywood Sign without a car? (Metro Red Line 802 ?)
And what about Hollywood Hills? Or how could they reach “Runyon Canyon Park”… by bus??? – Maybe they’ll meet a rattlesnake there (action-action… oh wow, how exciting, they could tell it their German friends later…hahaha). – I like to create an unusual “travel comic”: a combination of “realistic travel tips”, “adventure”, “dream”, “fairytale”, “fantasy” and “humor & fun” – not “too” serious but hopefully informative entertainment! 🙂 – And maybe it could be a good inspiration for other youngsters later: “Travelling through California WITHOUT a car” – I think that’s quite new and unusual? 🙂
PS: I’m going to check alternate routes in the internet… (INTERNET IS GREAT !!! 🙂
I lived there for 6 mos car free. Use Google maps to plan your L.A./Santa Monica/Venice + public transportation get arounds… 🙂 …
Fantastic photos! and I never made it to Griffith Observatory when I lived/worked in L.A. for 6 mos in late 2011/early 2012 😉
However I did make it to Chocoholics on N. Larchmont a few times 🙂 So Good 😀 Too bad they closed nearing the end of 2013 :-/
When I do visit L.A. next I want to go to Compartes Chocolatier (again) 🙂 and try out ChocoVivo 😀 As well, Moby’s new vegan restaurant little pine in Silverlake 🙂
I had so much fun doing meet-up L.A. Urban Hiking tours 😀 One of them was about 19 miles in one day = Downtown L.A. to Santa Monica Pier 😀 About 1/2 of us made it to the end, including me 🙂
Thanks Janice! I need to do another LA SweetsCrawl, methinks 🙂 I found one place on this trip that I think you would enjoy, La Monarca Bakery. They’re a Mexican-American coffee shop chain with a few locations through the city. They serve traditional coffee drinks and pan dulces in a modern cafe, playing hip Spanish-language rock music. I spent a few hours there doing work one night and *loved* their Mexican hot cocoa and tres leches cake.
And that’s an amazing hike route! I need to look them up. I’ve been wanting to go down to attend one of their bi-monthly (I think?) CicLAVia events http://www.ciclavia.org/, road closures for biking, walking etc. They’ve done some pretty interesting routes.
La Monarca Bakery sounds absolutely delish 😀 and I would also go to ice cream stop Salt & Straw (expanded out from Portland, OR) and Quenelle for their supposed to be delish macarons 🙂
Cassie: I certainly agree with your comments. The Griffith Observatory is beautiful. I lived in the LA area for some 20 years and went to the Griffith Observatory a few times. I do miss the area because now I’m back in PA. I do plan on going back some time in the future.
Wow, 20 years, eh! What are some of your other favorite sites/areas/things to do? I’ve been planning to write a full post sharing my favorite places in LA and things to do and I’d love to get your thoughts.
I remember my visit to L.A. I stayed at my friend’s place in downtown LA. We toured the various attractions, including the Griffith Observatory where the beautiful landscape of LA can be viewed. I really enjoyed my time there and I hope to go back there again someday.
Hi Claire! I’m so glad you got the chance to stay in Downtown LA, not a lot of first-time visitors make it there and I’ve always really liked the area. It’s changed A LOT over the last decade, there’s much more to do there now. Does your friend like living there? I’m curious what downtown residents think. Hope you make it back soon!
I loved my 4 mos stay in Downtown L.A. 😀 It was a good location for a car-free person like myself 😉 It was a lot of fun 🙂 Although I really thought Bottega Louie was a bit overrated :-/ My 2nd fave spot was WeHo 🙂
Great! Glad you got to explore LA on transit. Downtown LA is such a perfect base!
Wow ! it looks fabulous in the dark.
Los Angeles is my favorite and i love each and every things which is related to this place.
Images are truly very nice and your photography is awesome.
Thanks for sharing these great pics 🙂
Mary
Thanks Mary! I appreciate it 🙂 And LA’s one of my favorite cities, too.