Hollywood Sign Hike

Hey guys,
I'm back in the United States.  Since many of you are international readers, I thought I might add some of my fun US adventures into the blog.

Over Christmas, I decided to hike to the Hollywood Sign.  There was a video circulating on Facebook that pointed out that there was a trail that could get you right up to the Hollywood sign instead of the view from the Observatory 3 miles away.

If you type in the Hollywood Sign into Google Maps, it sends you to the observatory.  So, you can either view the Hollywood sign from Lake Hollywood Park, Griffith Park or venture up through the finicky Beachwood Canyon neighborhood and get up close and personal by taking the Mount Lee Trail.

Griffith Park is a long hike.  It's approximately 6.5 miles round trip.  The trail is mostly dirt and gravel, but there is not a lot of shade along the hike. The benefit, however is that the parking situation is fairly good.

Lake Hollywood gives you a really nice view from a few miles away and again, the parking is tolerable.

But if you're in for adventure and an easier hike to the sign, you can battle parking restrictions and get to the sign fairly quickly.  Neighbors within the Beachwood Community have gone to great lakes to prevent visitors from parking on their wind-y, narrow streets.  However, if you venture up on a weekday, you're in luck as the parking is not restricted.  You can get right up to the trail opening at Deronda Dr. and Rockcliff Dr.

Here are the directions:
From the 101, get off at Beachwood Dr., take a left at Ledgewood Dr.  It will jog around for a bit and appear to dead end. Take a left for a couple of meters, then a quick left to continue onto Ledgewood Dr.  Then, you'll take a sharp U-turn to Rockcliff Dr.  Where Rockwood Dr. meets Deronda Dr., there is a white entrance...BINGO!

There is a gravel platform that gives you an amazing and unobstructed view of the Hollywood sign.  Perfect for jumping photos, selfies and other debauchery.

The only riff raff on the mountain, was us.

If you walk back down toward the front gate and take a sharp U-turn, you enter the Mount Lee Trail. This 1-mile walk takes you up and behind the Hollywood Sign.  You can literally get within 10-feet of the letters.  No, you can't sit inside the 'O' like Hollywood films like you to think you can.  There is a strict trespassing policy and violators will be cited.

You can see from downtown LA to the Pacific Ocean

This hike is definitely on the easier side.  It's a steady incline up and pets on leashes are allowed.  Everyone hiking is very friendly and it's secure and free of peddlers and riff raff.  if you make it to the top, you can see from the valley to the ocean.  You can even see the controversial vineyard on the side of the mountain.

Made it to the top!

Hike away, folks.  It really is worth the parking hassle.

Wilson's Prom, Australia

For those of you that think I just drink and party all day, every day, I have created this post about Wilson's Promontory.  Wilson's Prom, or "the prom" as locals like to call it, is an amazing National Park in the southern most tip of Victoria, Australia.

My pilot, Andrew!

If the ocean hadn't risen to turn Tasmania into an island, the Prom would have extended all the way to Tasmania.

 

The car ride down to the southern coast from Melbourne is approximately 3 hours.  I can’t really tell you what it looks like because I am the worst navigator ever and slept a large portion of the way.  However, we did see a bunch of animals while driving including kangaroos, echidna, cows, birds and sheep. 

Echidna look like porcupines with shorter quills.  I'm pretty sure they can't throw quills like a porcupine, but I didn't get close enough to find out.

And, I did manage to wake up in time to see these beautiful landscapes!

 

Our first stop down The Prom was Squeaky Beach. It was named such because the sand has quartz in it and it squeaks when you walk on it.  (South Africans refer to it as “barking sand”.) The sand was super white and powdery and created the perfect bed for a nap.  You had to walk through a rainforest to get there and the beach was lined with giant boulders which helped shield the beach from the wind.

  

 

We decided to just roll the dice for lodging and googled hostels once we arrived.  When we rolled up to the hostel, we were told that it was full.  But that he would give us a 2 bedroom apartment for the same rate.  The apartment was clean and no one came to occupy the second room so we had it all to ourselves!  The hostel looked similar to a cranberry colored Bates Hotel, so we were very glad to have gotten to stay in the vacation apartments next door.

We arrived around 7:30 and decided to go to the local pub to watch the Australian Open tennis matches.  Poor Andrew was forced into 3 days of live tennis and now I was forcing him into tennis on TV.  This pub, however, was actually a hotel bar that also doubled as a senior center.  Seriously!  They had seniors' menu prices (which we were not eligible to elect) and you had to go up to the window and order your food despite there being waitresses all around.  There was no salt in any of the meals, clearly catering to a sodium-conscious crowd and there was some kind of PTA meeting happening at the table behind us.  It was all very odd, but surprisingly our food was actually really good.

The next morning, Andrew packed us a lunch (he will make someone an amazing house husband some day) and we decided to go climb Mt. Oberon.  Mt. Oberon is 557m high.  I realize that its not that high, but its still a mountain and the view was spectacular.  As a reward for our immense bravery and physical aptitude, we were both allotted cookies at the top.  

 

 

Amazing view from the top of a mountain

Andrew testing the Gods

Have a cookie, you earned it!

Our mountain climb only took about 2 hours, so we decided to do a bush walk to supplement our afternoon of hiking and adventure.  The first half of our bush walk was filled with persistent flies, hundreds of kangaroos and emus.  However, the second half was a little tame.  In fact, we didn't see anything for the third quarter of the walk, then we saw this weird snake-lizard hybrid.  It wasn't a snake and hadn't yet mutated into a lizard.  It had a long snake body, but it had 4 legs.  However, those legs didn't have any elbow joints so it couldn't really move fast.

Snake-Lizard Hybrid

Kangaroos in the bush

Emus

Putting the safari scope to work!

THAT was the big thrill of our walk back through the bush?  It was... until a giant snake crept up next to me.  That's right, a 4-5 foot long black snake with a lime green belly was sitting (do they sit?) just to my left. I squeaked a little when I saw it which prompted it to get up in a python pose then quickly turned and slithered away.  Thankfully Andrew saw it as well and he went after it trying to get a better look.  Fortunately, that snake did not have legs and could slither fast because I'm pretty sure he would have attacked Andrew and I would have been an asshole for leaving him dead in the bush.

When we got home, we googled "black snake, green belly, Australia" and nothing came up.  There is a black snake with a yellow belly (Northern Ringneck Snake), but it says those are only 2 feet long and this one was at least 4 feet.  Since I was too busy freaking out like a girl, I did not get a photo of Andrews would-be murderer.

On the way home, we hit up a small coastal city called Mornington.  Pretty amazing!

 

 

This was a pretty rad 2-day trip. We hiked about 15,000 steps (according to my Australian Open pedometer) which is approximately 5 miles. It cost us less than $150 with lodging, gas, a rental car and food.  Boom!