wanna hike?

the hollywood sign is a fixture of los angeles. everyone wants to see it. everyone knows it's there. and sometimes you just take it for granted that it's there. so i decided to pull myself out of this "hollywood sign complacency" and do something about it. i decided we needed to hike to the hollywood sign.


i went with a couple friends and this is at the start of our hike, at the bottom of the hill...when we were extremely energetic and ready to hike. i wish i could have said we kept up this attitude for the entire hike...

a view of the los angeles basin from the hill of the hollywood sign. yup, LA is really that smoggy.


this is when the hike took a turn for the worse...but it made it a fun adventure. as we were walking, we saw a couple guys take this shortcut...and being educated college graduates, we decided we would follow them no questions asked because maybe we could get to the sign faster.

wrong. shortcut = longcut. at least we got this great view of burbank out of it.


as we continued to look at this scene, i kept on thinking to myself that some buildings look really familiar. that's when i realized i was looking out at the ABC and NBC buildings! i saw them everyday when i worked at NBC last summer so i'm pretty sure my guess is spot on. if you want a nice view of the NBC lot, take a hike to the hollywood sign!

and this is when we made it to the top! one of the most photographed places in the world and we were there. behind it. hey, the back is just as important as the front, though not as attractive i have to say.

i'm just glad we made it to the top. our shortcut could have been disastrous. one wrong turn and we would have ended up at griffith park. i'm saving that for another day.