Hollywood Sign Hike.

What a day!!! It was full of laughter and adventures. I finally went hiking to to the Hollywood sign. It's been on my to-do list for almost 6 months and I'm just soo happy I went today. Claudia came to my house around 9:30am and we left at 10:15am. We waited until 10:15am  because we didn't want to deal with rush hour traffic. If we would have left the house at 8:30 it would had taken us like an hour and 30 minutes to get there. Instead we waited until 10:15am and got to the Hollywood sign around 10:50am. We took the 101 fwy and exited at Gower St/ Beachwood Dr. We drove around 1.5 miles on N. Beachwood Dr., the view as you're driving up is truly amazing.  

We saw tons of nice houses and stores. There was also a handful of tourists taking pictures in the middle of the street. We finally ended up at "Sunset Hollywood Ranch" and parked. The dirt parking lot was really small but the good thing is that Claudia's car is small so we didn't hesitate with parking. You can see the parking lot in this picture.

 It took us 35 minutes to reach the top of the mountain. The hike was not that difficult. There were a few steep parts in the road but its really not that bad. I'm a bit out of shape and I didn't have trouble going up. Not saying that it didn't make me break a sweat because I sure did break a sweat!!! As you're walking you have the choice of going to the back of the Hollywood sign and go to the top of it, but Claudia and I wanted to see the front. So we went to the left instead of the right. There was not a lot of people hiking which is a good/bad thing. At times it was only Claudia and I walking :o The view was nice as we went up but the fog made it hard to see.

We walked on the empty road for around 15 minutes. I guess it was empty because everybody was going to the top of the Hollywood sign. Claudia and I were singing and messing around as we walked. For a second we thought the road was closed but it turns out there is some sort of construction going on. We kept walking and FINALLY saw the sign. IT WAS HUGE. Our jaws dropped. We were stunned at how big the Hollywood sign is. I think this is the closest people can get to the front of the sign without trespassing.

 Since there was nobody else there we waited around 15 minutes until somebody came. We took a bunch of pictures that made the trip totally worth it. If you've been wanting to go to the Hollywood sign. Go for it!!!!! It truly is a unique and amazing experience. Just make sure you don't forget your camera like we did. We had to use Claudia's cellphone camera so the picture quality isn't great. Also make sure you know how to get there and what directions you have to take during the hike. Anyways, now I get to cross "going hiking to the Hollywood sign" off of my to-do list :D