"Are those the Hollywood letters?!" she asked excitedly as she pointed up at the Santa Monica Mountains.
"Yeah, that's the Hollywood sign."
"Oh my gosh!! Who would have ever thought that a girl from a little town in Germany would ever get to see the HOLLYWOOD LETTERS?!?!" She was beyond excited.
I have to admit, I have become a bit jaded about the Hollywood sign myself. I do work in Hollywood, after all, and everyday when I drive into work I see it. But seeing Bernadette's excitement reminded me what the Hollywood sign might symbolize to non-jaded people in the world outside of LA. To her, the Hollywood sign was a symbol of almost a fantasy land, where movies are made and famous people drive expensive cars down roads lined with palm trees and it's sunny every day of the year. And here we were!
While Bernadette was here, we talked several times about hiking up to the sign, but for one reason or another we never got around to it. So now, 2 years later, I finally decided to make the trek. With Ronny and 2 dogs we were watching for the weekend in tow, we drove up Beechwood Dr. to the trailhead. We got there around 9:30am, early enough to find parking and also early enough so we (and the pups) didn't die in the summer heat.
The trail is easy enough. It is a wide dirt road and then halfway it becomes a paved road up to the top. The round trip is only about 3 miles, but the beginning of the hike is pretty steep (not to mention covered in horse poop! We had quite a struggle steering the dogs around all the piles). Ronny and I were huffing and puffing, and the usually endlessly energetic dogs were even walking instead of straining with all their might against their leashes to run. There was limited shade, so whenever we came across some we took advantage of a little rest break and water break for the dogs.
The trail doesn't lead to the front of the sign, instead we had to hike around the back of the mountain and approach the sign from behind. That means for the first half of the hike, there were amazing vistas of LA behind us, and for the second half of the hike the San Fernando Valley was in front of us. When we finally reached the top, we were greeted by a 20-foot tall chain link fence, through which you could see part of the sign. The sign is so large (the letters are 45 feet tall) I couldn't even fit it into one picture.
We were able to scramble up a small hill at the top to see over the chain-link fence. At the top we could see all of the LA basin, and I'm sure on a clearer day we would have been able to see all the way to the ocean. But it was very hazy the morning we went (I refuse to say it was smoggy), and it was even a bit difficult to see downtown.
It was a fun hike, and a great way to tire out those energetic pups for an entire day. But it was also interesting to see the sign up close and personal. What started as an advertisement for a new housing complex in "Hollywoodland" has now become an iconic symbol synonymous with the glitz and glam and dreams of making it big in the movie biz. And I could be jaded and say that up close, it's just a bunch of steel and chain-link and security cameras, but who am I to deny the excitement one gets from seeing the Hollywood "letters" for the first time? I can't deny that I got excited the first time I saw it, and I still got a little excited hiking up to it!
The view about halfway up the hike
Me at the top with my adopted pups Archie and Walter
The sign is too big to fit in one picture from this close!
Me and Bernadette the day she saw the Hollywood sign circa 2009 (you can barely see it in the background)
Wish we had a better view of the sign. But it was definitely more rewarding than sleeping in. :)
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