Why Every Visitor to LA Should Spend One Morning in Griffith Park

Los Angeles is loud. Fast. Endless. One minute you're sitting in traffic next to a Lamborghini and a taco truck, the next you're standing under pine trees listening to hawks circle overhead wondering how a city this big still has places that feel untouched.

That's Griffith Park.

At over 4,200 acres, Griffith Park is one of the largest urban parks in North America — but somehow a huge percentage of visitors only see a tiny piece of it. Maybe the Observatory. Maybe a quick Hollywood Sign photo. Then they leave.

But Griffith Park is really its own strange little world.

You've got old abandoned train tracks. Hidden picnic spots that feel like summer camp. Trails that suddenly open up to giant views of the city. Coyotes wandering around like they own the place. Horseback riders climbing dusty hills while helicopters buzz in the distance. It's one of the only places in LA where the city and nature crash directly into each other.

And honestly, it kind of explains Los Angeles better than Hollywood Boulevard ever could.

Start Early

If you want Griffith Park at its best, go in the morning.

Before the heat kicks in. Before the parking lots fill up. Before everyone starts trying to get the perfect Instagram photo.

The light in the morning hits differently up there. The hills glow gold. The Hollywood Sign feels close enough to touch. Downtown LA sits in the distance under that weird silver haze the city gets.

Even lifelong Angelenos forget how beautiful this place is.

There's More Than Just Hiking

People think Griffith Park is just trails, but it's really more like a collection of little worlds connected together.

• Ride horses through the hills
• Visit the Griffith Observatory
• Explore the old abandoned zoo
• Hike to the Hollywood Sign
• Ride the miniature trains at Travel Town
• See live performances at the Greek Theatre
• Find hidden staircases and old tunnels
• Watch sunset from Vista del Valle
• Picnic under giant shady trees
• Spot deer, hawks, coyotes, and occasionally very bold squirrels

And somehow it all exists inside Los Angeles.

The Griffith Observatory

Even if you've seen it a hundred times, the Observatory earns its reputation. The building itself is stunning — Art Deco copper domes rising out of the hillside, with sweeping views of the basin and the Pacific on clear days. Free entry, open Tuesday through Sunday, and one of the best sunset spots in the entire city.

The Old Zoo

Before the LA Zoo existed, Griffith Park had its own. The animals are long gone, but the stone enclosures and cages are still there — slowly being swallowed by vines and chaparral. It's atmospheric in a way that's hard to describe: a little eerie, a little magical, and completely free. The old zoo is now a popular picnic spot, which is either charming or deeply strange depending on your perspective.

Travel Town

Free to enter and genuinely wonderful — Travel Town is an outdoor rail museum filled with vintage steam locomotives, freight cars, and rail equipment going back to the early 1900s. Kids love it. Adults who were kids once also love it. There's a miniature train you can actually ride, and it's one of those places that feels totally out of step with the rest of LA, in the best possible way.

The Greek Theatre

One of the best live music venues in the country, full stop. The Greek is a 5,900-seat outdoor amphitheater tucked into the hillside, and seeing a show there on a warm LA night is an experience that's hard to top. Even if there's no show on, walking past it on an early morning hike gives you a sense of how special the setting is.

The Best Way to Experience It

This might sound biased coming from us — but horseback is still the best way to see Griffith Park.

The park was built around riding trails long before LA became what it is today. Riding through the hills gives you a totally different perspective than sitting in a car or climbing a crowded tourist trail.

You hear things differently up there. You slow down. The city noise fades out for a bit.

And there's something very Old Hollywood about seeing the Hollywood Sign from horseback. It feels connected to the history of the place in a way that's hard to explain until you actually do it.

At Sunset Ranch Hollywood, riders have been exploring these hills for generations. Long before social media, before influencer culture, before half the city existed.

Some experiences in LA come and go. This one's still real.

A Good Reminder About Los Angeles

People love to complain that LA feels artificial. Too manufactured. Too spread out. Too disconnected.

But Griffith Park reminds you there's still something wild underneath all of it.

You can stand on a dusty trail, look one direction and see mountains, look the other and see millions of people stretching all the way to the ocean.

That contrast is Los Angeles.

And honestly, every visitor should experience it at least once.

Check out more Things to Do in LA from our curated list — or better yet, book a ride and see it all from the saddle.