The Hollywood Hike

Monday, at our friend J's suggestion, we hiked to the Hollywood sign.

Well, you can't actually hike up to the sign, it's more behind the sign.  Like such:

We went in the morning while the temperature was still cool.  I'm not sure how long it took us - maybe an hour each way? - we weren't paying attention at all.  Something that amazes me is that there is a vineyard on the Hollywood Hills.  In the middle of sprawling L.A.  It's on a pretty steep hill.  I wonder how they harvest...

The view towards Los Angeles was smoggy like always.  The reservoir with the city always looks strange to me.  The road to the center left is where we went last time for the best tourist picture with the Hollywood sign.

This is a picture of my friend J above the Hollywood sign.  We took a picture like this, too, but J's looks much better.  Plus, this is the picture that "inspired" us to hike the Hollywood sign.

I think if it were clear (if that ever happens) we might be able to see the Pacific from the top.  

And that would be pretty awesome.

Hollywood sign

So when we went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame we saw the Hollywood sign.  

It wasn't close at all.  

There must be a better place to see the Hollywood sign, right?  

Of course there is.  And we found it.  

It is 3000 Canyon Lake Drive, Hollywood, CA.  Here's the view. 

 You can literally drive up exactly to where we took this picture.  

  

Looking the opposite way you see this:

That's the Hollywood Reservoir with Westwood(?) in the hazy, hazy background.  

The actual location of the Hollywood Sign in relation to the rest of L.A. confuses me.  

You can see it from many different places and it seems like you shouldn't be able to see the sign from all these places.  

A much better photo-op than the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

It's crazy to me that we were this close to the sign and you can still see all the haze.  Yuck.

If you walk less than a quarter of a mile (round trip!) there's an even better photo-op.

SO many people just stopped where we first got out and didn't even try for this easy and way better view.  

If you come visit us don't worry, we'll make sure you get the better view.  So come visit us already!

On our drive we saw this awesome garage door:

Yes!  It looks like book shelves!  How cool is that?!  

I wonder if the books have titles on them and if they are actual book titles...  

We also saw Mulholland Drive.  It's a really long, twisty road in LA.  And when I say "we saw Mulholland Drive" I mean T drove and I dozed.  I was awake to take this picture of the San Fernando Valley though:

Because that would be some talent if I took the picture while I was dozing!

If you know what you're looking for in this picture you can find NBC, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros., and Disney.