The greatest city park in America? A case for LA’s Griffith Park

Griffith Park is a massive, mountainous, wild oasis in the middle of the dense urban sprawl characterizing much of this fabled city. Yet its identity is still very LA — fun, sunny and it’s been in enough films and television series that were it a person it would have its own star on the nearby Hollywood Walk of Fame. At 4,210 acres, Griffith outshines other extraordinary city parks of the US, such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate, which barely tops 1,000 acres, and New York’s Central Park, a mere 843 acres. Griffith’s peaks tower above those flat competitors too, with nearly 1,500 feet in elevation gain, making it practically vertical in orientation. And LA’s crown jewel of a park is still largely uncut, much of it remaining a wilderness area preserved more than 100 years ago, and barely developed, unlike the pre-planned “wild” designs of Golden Gate and Central Park. Add its history, views, recreation opportunities, unique and hidden spaces, a free Art Deco observatory and museum, the most famous sign in America and the park’s overall star-power, and you have a compelling case that Griffith is not just epic in scope but the greatest city park in the nation. There’s something for everyone there: a zoo, playgrounds and an old-timey trainyard for the kids; challenging and steep trails for hikers; dirt paths for equestrians; paved roads for bikers; diverse flora and fauna for nature enthusiasts; and museums for the science and history learners. In the beginning The modern history of the park begins with a tax write-off so big it has its own deed, scrawled out like the Declaration of Independence. You can see a copy of it in the park’s visitor center. “To be used as a PUBLIC PARK for the uses of recreation, health and pleasure for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of the said City of Los Angeles, forever,” reads the 1896 deed to the original 3,000 acres, donated by mining magnate Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith. Griffith was no relation to the famous and controversial silent film director D.W. Griffith of the early 20th century, but Col. Griffith flirted with infamy himself. Though a public advocate of Prohibition, Griffith shot his wife in the eye in a drunken rage. (She survived, but justifiably divorced him.) Before Griffith started buying up the land he’d later give away, it was previously occupied by José Vicente Feliz as part of a Spanish land grant. Before that, the Tongva, an Indigenous people of California, lived in these hills. You can learn more about those eras in the excellent Autry Museum of the American West, located in the park, including a debate about whether local Spanish missionaries committed genocide on the Native people. The high level of sensitivity in the exhibits may be surprising for a history and art museum named after “America’s favorite singing cowboy.” There are moving displays about slave markets for local Native people, the local gay rodeo movement that began in the 1970s, beautiful modern Western art, Billy the Kid’s actual rifle, an old, recreated saloon, and memorabilia about TV cowboy Gene Autry himself. In park history, and near the museum, Griffith Park’s Merry-Go-Round was where Walt Disney got the idea in the early 1950s to build his eponymous amusement park, according to a sign on a bench (now on display in Disneyland) from the ride. The carousel was also the epicenter of a race riot in 1961 following police being called on a group of young Black boys jumping on and off it. The Merry-Go-Round is currently closed for repairs. Into the wild Behind the carousel, supplied with a paper map from the nearby visitor center and the spotty reception of your phone’s map app, you can start a challenging scramble up to the highest peaks of Griffith on the east side of the park. First you’ll passed the old Los Angeles Zoo, which closed in 1965, much of it built in the 1930s by Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews. The old animal enclosures are now open for exploring, or a picnic. On a sunny April day, a gathering of Furries (the friendly subculture known for dressing up as anthropomorphic animal characters) were fittingly hanging out in what was once a polar bear cage. The new, currently operating zoo is about two miles away, still in the park. After passing the old zoo’s bird cages, a narrow dirt trail snakes up toward the hive-looking Bee Rock peak. The incline is so steep there are times when hikers slip-slide on all fours, grabbing onto shrub roots for purchase as tiny lizards dart under their hands. At 1,800 feet above sea level, and looking beyond the maze of trails zigzagging through the park, the 360-degree CinemaScope views of the city are stunning — well worth the effort of the sweaty climb. A majestic red-tailed hawk hovering on an upward air current up there is not uncommon. On the way back down, you can scramble through the semi-tamed tiers of Amir’s Garden — packed with plants and trees that a man named Amir Dialameh began hauling up, by hand, in the early 1970s when those trees were saplings. “In the land of the free, plant a tree,” Dialameh, an immigrant from Iran, is quoted on a sign in the park. Hooray for Hollywood (and science) One hike or bike destination is “Cathy’s Corner” off Mt. Hollywood Drive, famous for the singing-and-dancing bench scene of “A Lovely Night” in the film “La La Land.” Other than the view, there’s not much to see (the bench is not there), unless you happen to approach the hairpin turn at the same moment as a baby deer — then suddenly you’re in a Disney movie. You can continue a self-guided “La La Land”-in-the-park tour at the Griffith Observatory, which is immortalized in a long list of other films including “The Terminator,” “Bowfinger” and “Rebel Without a Cause.” A bust of James Dean, star of “Rebel,” is on display outside the arresting and iconic whitewashed Art Deco observatory. Built 90 years ago, the observatory is free to explore, and admission to its excellent planetarium is only $10. The small museum it houses is a greatest hits of exhibits, including a Foucault’s pendulum, a camera obscura, an actual moon rock, and a Tesla coil that shoots lightning bolts during short presentations scheduled throughout the day and night. The observatory is open every night until 10 p.m., so a drive up after the sun sets promises lights above and below. Just outside the hilltop observatory you get an eye-level view of the fabled Hollywood sign, restored and preserved primarily by late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. You can hike above or below the 45-foot-tall letters, but you can no longer go up and touch them. In the Griffith Park visitor center it’s explained that the sign originally read “Hollywoodland” because it was an advertisement for a real estate subdivision below. To reach the famous Batcave (aka Bronson Caves) from the kitschy 1960s “Batman” television series, take a modest hike alongside prickly pear cacti from the parking lot of the Bronson Canyon entrance. (The location inspired the stage name of action actor Charles Bronson, née Buchinsky.) Due to the risk of falling rocks, you currently can’t walk into the cave, but you can see it clearly through the chain link fence across the entrance. At the base of the park, the free Travel Town Museum is an ideal kids’ birthday party setting full of trains, both the vintage kind you can climb through and the miniature kind you can ride. The “town” has been featured in so many films and TV series they have a large sign listing them all, from “The Monkees” to “Quantum Leap” and dozens in between. Après hike Just above the gentle, winding Fern Dell nature trail section of the park, with its cascading waterfalls, lies the outdoor coffee shop, The Trails. You can enjoy pastries, coffee drinks and light lunch fare on concrete picnic tables under shady trees. It’s a perfect stop before or after the hike up to Griffith Observatory on the southwest side of the park. At Golden Road Brewing’s beer garden, you can wash the dust out of your mouth from a hike on the east side of Griffith Park with a crisp and fruity Ride On West Coast IPA. Located just over the LA River from the old zoo and Autry Museum, Golden Road is a lively spot with great beer and grub (try the fried avocado tacos), a fun spot to relax and talk about your favorite parts of the park or plot out the next day’s exploration