Griffith Park Is Bigger Than You Think and Almost All of It Is Free

Here is a figure that changes everything. Griffith Park is over 4,000 acres in size, which means it is about five times bigger than Central Park and among the largest urban parks in North America. Most Angelenos have explored less than one tenth of Griffith Park in Los Angeles. The Griffith Park Los Angeles sees as its backyard is a really big park.

That is the key to the misunderstanding people have about Griffith Park – they think about it as a single point you visit – drive to the top, see the Observatory, drive away. But it is not. It is a wilderness, a zoo, a museum, a train yard, a theatre, a merry go round and fifty miles of trails all in one, and almost everything inside is free to explore.

Griffith Park Address and the Layout of the Park

The official Griffith Park address would be 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Feliz area on the eastern side, but there are a lot of different entrances into the park depending on what exactly visitors are looking for.

Understanding the layout of Griffith Park helps to save some time, because there are lots of places to see inside. The eastern side, through Los Feliz and Riverside roads, has zoo, Autry Museum of the American West, Travel Town and merry go round. The southern side, via Fern Dell, has the Observatory. The Greek Theatre is located at Vermont Canyon road. Western and northern sides are mostly mountain, with only a few attractions. Griffith Park in Los Angeles should be visited as several parks sharing the border with each other.

Griffith Park Map and Why Is It Necessary

It is important to take the Griffith Park map seriously before coming here because there is not much signage inside the park and phone signal is often poor in the canyons. There is a Griffith Park map on the official website, it is available at ranger stations and trail apps cover the whole park.

The most useful thing a Griffith Park map gives a visitor is an opportunity to see what roads connect to which – some roadways appear to be connected when viewing through the phone, but they are closed for vehicles and gated at dusk. For example, Mount Hollywood Drive is closed for vehicles and serves as the walking path, and it is good to know about that in advance rather than find it out during the drive.

Griffith Park Trails and Some of Them Worth Doing

The Griffith Park trails total over fifty miles and vary from easy walkways to serious climbs. Mount Hollywood Trail from Fern Dell or Observatory is the traditional one – it is a moderate climb to a viewpoint over the whole basin.

To see the Hollywood Sign, visitors should follow the Brush Canyon or Mount Lee trails, but nobody is allowed to walk to the letters of the sign itself. Bronson Canyon houses the cave tunnels used for filming a thousand films, including the original Batcave, and it is a short, easy and family-friendly route. Fern Dell is the shady option for a hot day in the park. The Griffith Park trails are open from sunrise and the best tip to hike them in summer is to begin early – it is really hot up there and there is almost no shading.

Griffith Park Merry Go Round and Its History

There is the old 1926 carousel with 68 hand-carved horses and a band organ inside the park – and it has an interesting history.

Walt Disney brought his daughters to the carousel on Saturdays, and sat on a bench watching them riding. They say that it was at that bench when he started imagining the park where parents could enjoy something together with children. Disneyland originated in Griffith Park. There were periods of closures and limited operations of the Griffith Park merry go round in recent years, so it is necessary to make sure about its current operating schedule.

What Else Is There in the Park

The list of Griffith Park Los Angeles attractions is longer than any other park in the city could have.

The Los Angeles Zoo. The Autry Museum of the American West. Travel Town, outdoor railway museum where children can play with locomotives for free. The Greek Theatre. Griffith Observatory. Two golf courses, tennis courts, a swimming pool, bridle paths and pony trails.

In addition, there is the Old Zoo, the abandoned stone enclosures of the first zoo opened here in 1912, and now it is a picnic area that people can walk through.

Griffith Park Hours and When to Come

The Griffith Park hours generally run from 5AM to 10:30PM for the park as a whole, but the key point is that the mountain trails and roads close at sunset and different attractions have their own schedule.

The Griffith Park hours depend entirely on visitors’ plans. Mountain trails and walking paths are open from dawn to dusk strictly, Observatory operates in the evenings, the zoo works until mid-afternoon. Rangers really enforce the sunset closing hours in the mountains, so everyone hiking in the park needs to walk down the mountain before it becomes dark.

Griffith Park Parking and the Best Part of It

Griffith Park parking is free across most of the park, which is unusual for Los Angeles and the main reason for a really cheap day spent here. There are free lots at Fern Dell, Travel Town, the Old Zoo picnic areas, the merry go round and along the main roads.

The only exception is parking at the Observatory, where metered parking is applied. Griffith Park parking is often crowded on weekend mornings at popular trailheads, like Fern Dell and Bronson Canyon, so early arrival helps. The DASH Observatory shuttle and Metro connections at Vermont and Sunset stations help you come here without a car.

Griffith Park Events Throughout the Year

The Griffith Park events calendar includes concerts at the Greek Theatre, zoo festivals, ranger-led hikes, holiday light drives, equestrian events and observatory’s star parties.

There is seasonal programming in the park – the Griffith Park events around the holidays include the lighting of the roadway, which is very popular and there are long queues of cars. Summer includes the concert season. The ranger-guided hikes are free and really good – especially for families interested in natural history of the place rather than just exercising.

Griffith Park Reviews and Feedback of the Visitors

The Griffith Park reviews are overwhelmingly positive, and the main point that people notice there is the huge size of the park and the fact that everything is free there. The trails, the views, the Observatory and the feeling of the wilderness in the middle of a large city are the main topics in the reviews.

The warnings given in Griffith Park reviews are also consistent and worth paying attention to. Crowding at southern trailheads at weekends. Heat and lack of shading on the exposed trails. The parking problem near the Observatory. And the closure of the roads and attractions because of maintenance or fires.

After the Hike, the Rest of the Day

From the practical perspective, the Los Feliz neighborhood is right at the border of the park with plenty of food options there, and the Vermont corridor runs southward to the rest of the city.

But here is what visitors usually do after the hiking. They have walked, climbed and enjoyed the views. Children are tired. Parents are happily tired. It is really hot and the afternoon needs some indoor activity, air-conditioned and structured and interesting – the opposite of an open trail.

From an Open Trail to the Room With the Locked Door

This is our part of the day. At Maze Rooms we have escape rooms across Los Angeles, six locations and over twenty private rooms, and one of them is located just minutes away from the southern entrances to the park.

The contrast makes everything possible. The open trail is unstructured, physical and wide. The escape room is enclosed, tight, mentally challenging and puts every visitor into a built world – Egyptian tomb or underwater research station or Victorian mansion or something else. The park tires the body. The room tires the brain. This is why visiting both in one day helps to put children to sleep early.

Why Groups Visit Our Escape Rooms After Their Griffith Park Visit

Because our game format suits every group who visited the park. If there is a family – the Temple of Lost Gold escape room in our Robertson location is designed for a nine-year-old child to solve the puzzles himself rather than just follow adults. Birthday parties – we hide a gift inside the room for the birthday child to find during the game, and our reception hall accepts any outside food, so a cake goes well after the escape game and after the picnic. Dates – free hike and private escape room for two is the cheapest good day in Los Angeles. Corporate team building – half-day and full-day events.

We have private rooms only for your group, no strangers in the game. The prices start at $37 per person. We are open every day from 10AM to 11PM, and even late hours help – because the mountain gates close and the park sends visitors home in the evenings, while we are still open. The five-star reviews on Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor are the result of years of hard work on building rooms and telling stories inside – the same dedication that the park rangers devote to the fifty miles of trails.

 

Our Locations & Rooms

Highland Ave
Robertson Blvd
Santa Monica Blvd
Playa Del Rey
Vermont Ave
Sepulveda Blvd
Ventura Blvd