This video will show you exactly how to get to the best and closest possible location to see the Hollywood sign in all its glamour from the front and from the back without getting lost in the Hollywood hills.

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Getting close to the Hollywood sign might seem daunting, especially that residents of that area have made it difficult for people to access some of the best trails to the sign. Luckily, I've lived in Los Angeles for a long time, and know exactly where to park for free and which trail to take to see the Hollywood sign up close and personal from the front and from the back. By the way, the views of the city are beautiful from up there!

My favorite trail to go up to the Hollywood sign is to go via the Bronson Canyon trail. In order to do that the best place to access the park is Via Canyon Dr. A good way to easily get there is to type “3200 Canyon Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90068. This will lead you to the entrance of the park. Once there you have 2 choices. Either park inside the park, but bear in mind that the gate closes at Sunset, so if you want to play it say you can park right before the entrance of the park at 5800 Carolus Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90068. There’s usually a lot of parking and it’s perfectly legal to park there. Do pay attention at the signs. This is Los Angeles and the City will take any and every opportunity to give a ticket or even tow your car, so safety first.

Trail wise, even though our main purpose of this hike is to check-out the Hollywood sign up close and personal I usually love taking a detour to the Bronson Caves. The detour is only .2 miles and it will lead to the Bronson Caves which are very iconic for having been used in the 1960s Batman TV show. This same cave entrance was filmed at an angle, since the cave is actually pretty short and was featured as the exit for the Batmobile, and basically the secret entrance to the Batcave. I’m a nerd so I love visiting this stuff. Also, once you go through the cave people seem to have had fun creating spiral rock formations. I’m not sure how long they’ve been there but somebody must have had a good time making these interesting pieces of art.

Okay, after this short .2 mile detour let’s go on our main quest which is getting to the Hollywood sign. Before starting the hike taking into consideration that the hike is 1.9 miles each way. This means that the full hike is close to 4 mile and actually completing and getting back to one’s car may take a good 3 hours. I just wanna give an FYI. The hike isn’t too steep but it’s good to always give oneself enough time. What I’ve noticed as of late is that they put a bunch of signs that really help not getting lost. These didn’t exist until recently and make it so much easier.

On the way up I love looking at the nature of the trees and somehow the burnt logs and trees always attracts me. This trail is part of Griffith Park which is a large municipal part which is located in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles and is made out of the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains covering 4310 acres of land literally making it one of the largest urban parks in North America. If you’re in the area be sure to visit the Los Angeles zoo, The autry Museum of the American West, or even the Griffith Observatory. These are all located close-by and are located in Griffith park. Afterall they are iconic places in Los Angeles and are a must to visit. Going up the trail what I really appreciate is that there are many spots where you can see downtown Los Angeles and it’s surrounding areas. Depending on the day sometimes these views are obstructed by smog but if you’re lucky you may actually get a clear view of the whole area. In all respect it’s always been fascinating for me that in the distance millions of people are going about their lives, and just the fact that it’s Los Angeles I know that many come here in order to fulfill their dreams of working in the Cinema industry. In the same way as this city can make people dream it’s also the home of broken dreams, but for better or worse this is the City I’ve lived in for the past 20 years and have grown to love. After all the weather is excellent 90% of the time, and even if this place has many flaws the opportunities given here are incomparable.

At one point on this hike you will come to an intersection. There you can either go to the front of the Hollywood sign or take the other trail that takes you to the back of the sign. The back of the sign takes you to a higher point and will have a better view of the city, but for this video we focused on going to the front of the sign. Luckily once at the intersection each trail is pretty short so visiting both the front and back of the sign is very doable.

The Tyrolian Tank trail will take you to the front of the sign and the Mt Lee Summit trail will take you to the back of the trail.

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