If you happen to be visiting Griffith Park between now and April 12, 2015, there are a few things the City and the Department of Recreation and Parks have started to try to ease possible traffic congestion, particularly around he Observatory:
• Spring Break Traffic Initiatives Underway. To help deal with the surge of spring break visitors and cars, our Department is instituting a number of temporary initiatives to keep traffic moving during the spring break period (from March 21-April 12):
o Inbound (northbound) Western Canyon Road is being closed each day at 10:00 a.m. Cars are being turned around at the Section 9 parking lot.
o A portion of Mt. Hollywood Drive has been opened to provide additional parking.
o The Department and DOT are offering a dedicated DASH shuttle bus running between the Greek Theatre and the Observatory from 1:00-10:00 p.m. EVERY day (including Mondays) through Sunday, April 12. The fee to ride the bus will be the same as for the normal DASH Weekend Observatory Shuttle (which will run as usual on the weekends).
As a reminder, Griffith Observatory itself is always closed on Mondays, so if you're planning to visit the *inside* of the Observatory, don't go on a Monday! Otherwise, it's open weekdays, noon - 10pm, and weekends, 10am - 10pm.
The "portion of Mt. Hollywood Drive" that is open will take you to the big turn in that road, which gets you a little closer to the Hollywood sign than normal, if that's your goal.
The open section of Hollywood Drive actually goes between 1/2 and 2/3 of a mile further than I thought it would go, which reduces the roundtrip distance to the Hollywood sign by a fair quantity.
ReplyDeleteAn article in today's L.A. Times says they've opened a 1.1 mile segment of Mount Hollywood Drive, so this would reduce your *potential* walk to the Sign by 2.2 miles. Of course, you likely won't be able to park right at the end of the road, so your actual hike length will depend on where you wind up parking. It's a pretty significant reduction in distance, of course.
ReplyDeleteNot surprisingly, many bikers and hikers are not happy with the change to Mount Hollywood Drive.