Hiking to the Griffith Observatory

Update: As of Saturday, November 3, 2007, the roads to the Griffith Observatory were re-opened to private vehicle traffic. The observatory shuttle is no longer running, and there is no longer any cost associated with visiting the Griffith Observatory. Read more here and here.

I had some time today, so I made a 12 noon reservation for the Griffith Observatory this morning. I also wanted to see what it would be like to hike from the Greek Theatre parking lot.

There is a roadblock set up at the Greek parking lot. The city workers will not let you drive up past that point, but they wave through the observatory shuttles and employees in private vehicles and vendors.

I parked my car at the parking lot. The ticket (it's free, but you need to enter your credit card information to hold the reservation) says you will need to show the ticket to park at the Greek Theatre, but there was no one checking tickets when I arrived around 11:20. There is also some street parking across from the lot.

The road up to the observatory is fairly steep, but shaded by trees. You have to be careful because the edge of the road falls away downhill in places. I walk at a fairly brisk pace, and enjoy hiking, and it took me 15 minutes to get up to the observatory. If you are in decent shape, I can't imagine it would take more than half an hour.

I noticed that there were two or three dozen cars parked on the road leading down from the observatory parking lot, and probably another two or three dozen cars parked in the lot. I asked a Park and Recreation worker, and he said the cars all belong to employees.

I found it a little strange that employees aren't required to park in a remote lot and take a shuttle to the observatory. When the public demand dies down and the observatory shuttle stops running, a good percentage of the parking spaces will be taken up by employees, and parking at the observatory will be considerably more difficult than before the renovation, when the employee area was a small part of the parking lot.

I arrived at the observatory about twenty minutes before opening, and there was a small crowd milling around in front. I spent the time walking around the building and taking pictures, and when I returned just before noon, the line waiting to get in stretched across the front of the building. We were forced to enter through the new underground entrance. A large number of the visitors were eager to see the new planetarium show, and while the exhibit areas were not so crowded, a long line formed in front outside the building to buy tickets for the planetarium show. I believe the planetarium show runs every hour, starting at 1 pm, but I didn't have the time to see it today.

I noticed that the hiking path that goes down from the east side of the observatory down the ridge to the lower side of the Greek Theatre was cordoned off, both at the top of the path, and a few hundred feet down, near where the observatory was fenced off during the renovation.

In my opinion, the hiking path is not the best option. It does allow you to walk without vehicle traffic, but 1) it's very steep just up from the Greek Theatre area 2) there is almost no shade, and you would be fully exposed to the sun or wind 3) there is a point at which the path crosses a vehicle service road, and it's easy to lose the path.

Camp Snoopy

On Friday, our daughter's preschool went to Knott's Berry Farm, a theme park in Orange County. The school pr0vided a free ticket for each student and for one parent, but my wife arranged to get the day off from work, and we made it a family excursion, taking our ten month-old son as well. We were able to buy one adult ticket at a discount group rate through the preschool.

The highlight of the park for the toddler set is Camp Snoopy, which has ten or fifteen rides and attractions for younger children. Knott's Berry Farm is now owned by Cedar Fair, an Ohio-based amusement park company, but when the park was still owned by the Knott family, they signed an agreement with Charles Schultz allowing them to create a children's area using the Peanuts characters.

Actually, our three year-old daughter doesn't know Snoopy, Charlie Brown, or the rest of the characters (the way she knows the Disney princesses, Elmo, or the Wiggles). But somehow she wasn't scared of the giant Snoopy costumed character, in the way she was scared of getting close to Mickey Mouse when we visited Disneyland last March and in the fall of last year.

The Camp Snoopy area has a lot of fun things for preschoolers, with an indoor playhouse, huge bounce house, and lots of rides that were a little fast but not too scary. It reminded me of Adventure City, a smaller theme park just for kids a little further down Beach Boulevard, in being less sophisticated in its rides, but still a lot of fun for younger kids.

The real advantage Knott's has over Disneyland is the lack of crowds. Most of the day, we could go on the rides in Camp Snoopy with wait times of two minutes or less. And the rest of the park seemed very uncrowded as well. Knott's admission prices are 2/3 of Disneyland's prices, and they regularly offer discounts to local residents.

Griffith Observatory offers 136 free tickets on first day

Update: As of Saturday, November 3, 2007, the roads to the Griffith Observatory were re-opened to private vehicle traffic. The observatory shuttle is no longer running, and there is no longer any cost associated with visiting the Griffith Observatory. Read more here and here.

I have been watching the Griffith Observatory shuttle/reservation website from time to time, and checked in today to see if the free tickets for hikers/bikers would be available as promised, 48 hours in advance of Friday's public opening.

A few weeks ago, there was notification that there would be a limited number of free tickets available for hikers and bikers, and parking would be available at the Greek Theatre parking lots just below the observatory on Vermont Canyon Avenue.

I found this information on the website today:

3) A limited number of timed-entry reservations will be made available free of charge 48 hours in advance of the day planned for visiting. Parking for those with free reservations will be at the Greek Theatre. A special shuttle will run from the Greek Theatre to the Observatory. ONLY those with free timed-entry reservations will be able to board this shuttle; those with reservations for parking at Hollywood & Highland or the Los Angeles Zoo may NOT park at the Greek and ride this shuttle.

While these free, 48-hour-advance reservations are available to anyone, they are especially designed to accommodate those wishing to hike or cycle to the Observatory. Like all visitors, hikers and cyclists need a timed-entry reservation to enter the Observatory building and grounds. They should park at the Greek Theatre or anywhere else in Griffith Park to start their hike or ride.

If you go to the page that has available reservation times, there are 17 time slots between 11:30 AM and3:50 PM for Friday, November 3rd, the first day of operations. Each time slot has "8+" slots available, or at least 136 possible slots for the first day.

The number is far fewer than the 1200 free tickets the city had earlier anticipated, but with nothing reported in the mainstream press, I was surprised to find the free shuttle service has been created. The reservation purchase page claims that it is an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) shuttle, but there is no mention of this in the reservation and ticket description page.

In any case, this means that a lucky few will be able to visit the new Griffith Observatory free of charge. It's not easy to find, but it's better than nothing, and I hope some people of limited financial resources come across the service and are able to use it to visit the observatory.