Hiking Mt. Bell Griffith Park

This is a great 5-mile hike in Griffith Park! The Mt. Bell Hike in Afoot & AField or on All Trails app the Mineral Wells hike.



Great on a cool day as it was challenging (see clip to Mt. Bell peak) and there was little tree cover. My statistics showed an 1155 ft elevation gain. Make sure you pack extra water. Never fails, every hike I have been on, people always ask if I have extra water. Just throw in that extra disposable water bottle as a just in case.

Nice thing about hikes in Griffith Park is you are never too far from another hiker if need help, but there is also enough space to feel isolated if you want to be.

Returning from Mt. Bell, we took a short cut, cutting the All Trails hike length by a quarter. It was more of a goat trail than a path as seen in the video, it was an official trail, but if you are really hungry, and want to save a half hour or so, it is an option.

Another nice thing about hikes in Griffith Park is the free parking, except around the observatory area. We parked in Mineral Wells lot for the Mt. Bell hike.

Have a great hike!

Please subscribe and check out my four books on Amazon : From Sarria to Santiago, Yellowstone to Mt. Rushmore: A Three-Week Roadtrip, 10 Days in Egypt, and From Lions to Pharaohs Book 1: Kenya.

Hiking Runyon Canyon

Runyon Canyon is a great 1.8- mile hike in Hollywood.

Parking is neighborhood streets. Most are 2-hour limits which is plenty of time to finish the hike unless you hike the extended 3.5-mile portion. I hiked the 1.8-mile loop (car door to car door) in an hour and fifteen minutes. Please read all parking signs as I have read parking enforcement is active in the area.

Usually it is a crowded trail, but on a Labor Day Saturday at 3 pm it was pretty empty.

There is one steep part on the 1.8-mile loop. See my stair portion of the video. You can avoid stairs and the steepest part of the loop if you take westside of the loop up and back. You can see the paved westside trail at the end of my video as I look across the canyon. (There is an extended 3.5-mile loop, but I have not hiked that one.)

Great activity after a movie or meal in Hollywood. Bring plenty of water as there is no shade on a sunny day.

Dragons, Bruce Lee, and Red Lanterns, exploring Chinatown

The heart of Los Angeles' Chinatown is packed with restaurants, stores and art galleries in a two-block square area.

From the Chinatown architecture-inspired Gold Line station walk one block west on College Street to North Broadway. The Dragons Gate is a long three blocks south on Broadway. If its daytime there are a number of Chinese shops and mini malls to wander through along the way.

  

The heart of Chinatown lies to the north between College and Bernard Street and Hill and Broadway. As you head north on Broadway make sure you look to your right between the buildings that make up Blossom Plaza for the rows of red lanterns strung between the buildings. They are beautifully illuminated at night.

Halfway up the block will be a stoplight and crosswalk that leads to Chinatown Central Plaza. Here you'll find souvenir shops, herbal stores, a jazz club, bakeries, the Bruce Lee statue, Chinese-style buildings and other interesting things to see.

Most of the Chinese restaurants are outside the plaza on Hill or Broadway. We ate at Full Moon House which I am happy to say states no MSG on their menu. Our dinner of honey walnut shrimp and seafood fried rice was delicious.

General Lee's in the plaza is an interesting two-story craft bar with a wooden interior giving it an old school Far East feel. For Chinese New Year they had a tasty Year of the Dog drink.

Across Hill is Chung King Court and Road. Painted on the side of the Foochow Restaurant on the corner is a note about how they were a filming location for the movie Rush Hour. The buildings and signs surrounding the court and road seemed a bit more run down than the central plaza across the street. However the businesses in the old storefronts are now primarily art galleries, studios and design companies. It was a very interesting contrast between the old and new. Most of the art galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. during the later part of the week and weekends.

Central Plaza architecture

One of the last places to close for the evening that is not alcohol related is Lollicup, a boba tea, ice cream, late-night snack type of place. It closes at 11:00 PM. I thought the ice cream was good and found the seating area with its number of mismatched adornments interesting.

Important note 1:  Keep in mind that most of the stores in Chinatown close by 6 or 7 except during special events like Chinese New Year, so go early if you want to shop.

Important note 2: The Gold Line and Uber make it very easy and inexpensive to reach Chinatown if you don't want drive and hunt for parking. The Gold Line station makes for a great starting point for your excursion.

 

Great Day Santa Monica

Santa Monica is an amazing place to visit for a day or a weekend. From the pier, amusement park rides, 3rd Street Promenade, movie theaters, restaurants, street performers and of course the great sandy beach, there's something for everyone.

 

Everything is close to each other with parking structures throughout the area. We parked in Lot 6 on 2nd street: free first 90 minutes, then $1.00 for every hour thereafter. Not bad if you're headed out only for a few hours.

 

Restaurants run the gamut of cuisines and price. As my son and I were eager to get to the pier, we stopped for a quick bite at Stefano's Pizzeria. They primarily sold pizza by the slice, which I'm sure is one reason why there were a number of high schoolers here. Their outdoor tables are also great for people watching as it was right on the corner of Arizona and 3rd.

From here we walked south on the Promenade past the dinosaur statues, stores and a street magician then through the Santa Monica Place open air mall.
 

Then we joined the throngs of people and headed to the pier on this glorious sunny 75-degree January day. From the top of Ocean Boulevard you have to walk down a long ramp to the pier itself. At the top of the ramp were two sets of street performers. One set was a pair of guys wearing a Trump mask and the other a Kim Jong-un mask who were posing for pictures with tourists. The other was a music dance troupe.

 

On the pier is the historic merry go round, restaurants like Bubba Gump Shrimp, lots of vendors and musicians. I particularly enjoyed watching two young women sing while their father played a ukulele. There were also fishermen on the pier and people swimming in the water. From the pier, are great views of Santa Monica beach and Malibu to the north. Looking south is Venice Beach  and the hill of Palos Verdes.

 

After walking to the end of the pier and passing a sign that said "66 End of the Trail",  we headed back to the car. We stopped at an intranet coffee shop and picked up a good smoothie for the hour and a half long drive to go 15 miles back home. Traffic from Santa Monica to anywhere in L.A. after 4:00 is a tough.

 

A great day out in Santa Monica!

Great Hollywood Hike

Runyon Canyon is a 2.5-mile popular hike in Hollywood with great views of the city that will get your blood pumping with its steep inclines.

Me and Rosemary - view from Cloud's Rest. Western trail in distance.

Runyon Canyon has magnificent views of the Hollywood sign, the observatory, downtown Los Angeles and the sea. At various outlooks the city installed benches to take a breather and feel the wind blow across your face as you gaze across the Los Angeles basin below. If you don't stop to take in the views, you can easily complete this hike in an hour.  One couple said they completed it in half an hour.

Downtown Los Angeles

The trail on the eastern side of the canyon is dirt and steeper than the paved the western side. There's an option to double the length of your hike by taking the far western route that branches off the western trail that will lead you all the way back to Mulholland Drive.  

Steps on eastern trail

It was definitely a Hollywood crowd with most people sporting mirrored sunglasses, yoga outfits and great bodies. Many people had dogs. 

A block south of the park's entrance is a man selling custom ordered fresh fruit cups. Very refreshing after the shadeless hike.

Fruit stand

Only street parking is available but fortunately no permits are required. That being said, always check the street signs wherever you park as parking rules constantly change in L.A. We parked on Fuller Street and walked 3 blocks to the park's entrance.

To wrap up our day in Hollywood, we ate a late lunch at the historic 101 Coffee Shop on Franklin. I had good carne asada tacos and my wife had a great portobello mushroom sandwich.  We topped off our meal with a decadent, although cherryless, hot fudge sundae.

A great day out in Hollywood.

Great inspirational sign on trail!

A Day Out: Santa Monica Pier

Singers, snakes, and shakes! These are just a few of the interesting things one can do at the Santa Monica pier.

Saturday afternoon I took the family to the Santa Monica pier. It had been over five years since I had made the trek to the pier and while many things had changed and many more were still the same.

Parking and traffic were just as bad as I remembered. However, the city of Santa Monica now has an interactive parking map with real time updates on how much space each lot has at any given time. It showed us that all the public lots on 4th St. were at 93%, but a lot on 2nd St. was at 33%. Here's link to the site: Santa Monica Parking Map

Parking was free for the first 90 minutes and $1 for each half hour thereafter.

From here we walked ten minutes to the bluffs overlooking Santa Monica beach.

Near the cannon pointing towards the pier, yes a WWII canon sits on the bluff, five men had a number of boa constrictors and exotic birds they allowed bystanders take pictures with in exchange for tips.

From here we followed the throngs down to the pier.

There were more food places than I remembered: a Bubba Gump Shrimp, Pier Burger, Mariasol and a number of others.

There were multiple performers and singers on the pier as well. One woman sang about San Diego and at the very end of the pier with the sun setting behind him, a young man sang "Here Comes The Sun," by George Harrison.

People were still fishing off the pier like when I was a child and one teenager caught a baby mackerel using fishing line wrapped around his hand and kernels of corn from a can of Del Monte sweet corn on a hook.

The arcade and rock shop were also still here, as was the guy with a megaphones reciting bible versus. Probably a different guy, but same depressing message.

Then we headed over to Pacific Park on the pier and rode the Ferris wheel where we saw the last glow of the sun disappearing on the western horizon. This entire area was much filled in since my last visit. I believe the Ferris wheel was the only attraction.

For dinner we ate at Pier Burger which had very good french fries and shakes and then headed back home.

A great way to spend a day.