Hike to the Hollywood Sign: It's so El Lay.

There are so many tourist-ey things to do in LA. There's the Hollywood walk of fame, Rodeo Drive, lunch at the Ivy, and of course going to the Hollywood sign. They're the sort of things that you think to yourself, "Hey, I live here, I should do that." and then you never do. Up until I came to Pepperdine, I had no idea that you can actually hike to the Hollywood sign. Somehow, even though Campus Recreation leads a hike up there every semester, I never managed to go. I blame it on too many trips to the Malibu Inn and Sunset Bar & Grill  tests I had to study for.

Long story short, a couple of weeks ago, a few of my friends suggested that we go on the hike, and since I'd been putting it off, I thought, "Why not? It's summer, I'm young, and somewhat active, this will be fun."

Well, it would have been more fun if I had remembered to bring tennis shoes on the morning of the hike. Nevertheless, we were already planning on going, so I gamely decided to do the hike in flip flops (in hindsight, this was totally unintentional, but very LA. No one wears appropriate footwear here). We drove up into the Hollywood Hills, passing posh mansions, and cars that cost more than my parents' house. When we finally parked, we saw that the Hollywood sign was fairly close. It just happened to be up a steep trail-less incline.

Un-daunted, we decided the most logical thing to do was to take some pictures. I should probably explain, we were under the impression that there would be a clearly marked path to the sign, but instead of looking up how to get to it beforehand, someone in our group (who will remain nameless) just googled "Hollywood Sign" and that was the means we used to find ourselves at the base of this hill.

After an appropriate amount of jumping pictures and high fives, we stopped a woman who was jogging by and asked her how to get to the actual hike. She told us it was just around the corner and through a small gate, and that the sign was about a half hour hike up the hill. We proceeded to walk around the corner, only to find a small dirt path that dead ended in some trees. So naturally, we stopped to take more pictures.

Clearly, we were very focused on the task at hand. About twenty minutes later, we realized that we simply hadn't walked far enough, because the "trail" up to the sign was actually a large, paved road that went all the way to the top. Yet another example of how well Los Angeles tolerates nature. On the other hand, the asphalt road made the fact that I was wearing flip flops much less of a problem. It also eased the path for the army of mommy-hikers with strollers who were out on that fine Monday morning. Honestly, it was like the 405, only with toddlers in strollers and men wearing baby bjorns.

The hike took us longer than thirty minutes, but that could have something to do with all of the pictures we stopped to take. When reached the top we were greeted with two very interesting facts:

1. There were about fifty people milling around the summit of the hike. Starbucks is probably going to open up a franchise there next week. It was SO crowded.

2. The end of the hike actually spits you out behind and above the Hollywood sign, and there's about 60 feet and a chain link fence that separates you from the actual letters of the sign. This was a tiny bit disappointing, as it meant I could not climb inside one of the "O"'s and stick my head out, which is what I was hoping for.

Even though the City of Los Angeles did not want anyone to use the Hollywood sign as a jungle gym, the view from the top was really lovely. We could see allllll the way across town to the ocean. Ahhhh.

Everyone should go hike to the Hollywood sign. It's a quick, fun hike, you'll get some fresh air in your lungs, see lots of other tourists, and the view is totally worth it. Don't expect a warm welcome from the locals, though.

"TOURISTS GO AWAY"

Big thanks to our epic-hike photographer, LG, for stopping to take a million pictures!