17. July 2022

Day 44: Hollywood

Hollywood

Title is Hollywood, but no Hollywood sign as main picture… What’s wrong here? Two things, we first took the wrong trail to get to the sign, then we managed to make some pictures with the camera, but the camera is in the car… 🤣

So the Hollywood sign follows on another day. But let’s start at the beginning.

Run

Another San Diego waterfront run, in the morning the weather was perfect, so I did 12 km before we left. Nicole used the time to hit the Gym and did some lifting.

La Jolla Beach

Nicole read about the Seals & Sea Lions at La Jolla Beach, so it was set that we have to visit them. As it was more or less on the way to Los Angeles, we decided to do it on the travel day, which was today.

It was around a 30 minute drive and then we did just a short stop. First we weren’t sure what to expect, but as soon as we got out of the car we were greeted by some Sea Lions.

Sea Lions, where? You need good eyes. The good pictures are on the camera in the car…

Los Angeles

After the quick stop we started the drive to LA, as there was traffic even on a Sunday afternoon, it took us around 3 hours in the end. Our first stop was Wonder View Trailhead, as we were under the impression that the trail leads to the Hollywood sign. From the parking it was a short road walk and then we hit a black gate. At first we weren’t sure if that’s really the right way, but we saw other people and apparently it was the way to the Trailhead.

After the gate it was just a really short walk and we were at the bottom of the trail.

The trail started really steep, GPS measured up to 40% grade, but after the drive it was a welcome change and we quickly climbed up. To the first peak it was around 200m of elevation gain, from there we already had a great view.

After that we followed the ridge, so it wasn’t too steep, but the trail still went up.

Towards the end there was a bit of downhill and then we reached the Hugh Hefner Overlook. We had a great view from there, but realized that we can only see some of the letters from behind the sign. And there was no way to get to another spot (maybe a lot of road walking all the way down, but we passed on that).

We went all the way back to the car, the hike was nearly 5 km and 350 m of elevation gain, so a nice activity in the afternoon sun of LA.

Quick research led us to a real good spot to see the sign, which was the end of Deronda Dr. There isn’t any real parking so Nicole got quickly out of the car and took then some pictures of the sign.

If you are in Los Angeles you can’t pass on the Walk of Fame, so we did that on the way to Venice Beach. But it was crowded like crazy, guess a bit earlier in the day would make sense.

Venice Beach

For the next two nights we stay at the Venice Beach Samesun Hostel, we got a private room here, but it’s still not really luxury and with 200$/night not cheap… But I guess that’s how it is at these places.