I hiked from my apartment to the top of Mt. Hollywood, stopping at the Griffith Observatory and passing through the Berlin Forest on the way. The hike ended up being nine miles – about twice as long as I thought it would be.
One odd thing that happened: I had been sitting at the picnic benches at the top for about ten minutes when another girl walked up with her dog. Suddenly a swarm of insects flew right over and around us! They flew north to south, and it lasted for a full minute or more. We were both really freaked out – wondering if we got caught in some sort of Biblical plague or a horror movie or something!
Mysterious insect swarms aside, the view from the top of Mt. Hollywood is pretty spectactular – downtown, the Observatory from above, Glendale and the rest of the Valley…you can probably see out to the ocean on a clear day.