Griffith Park has always been more than, well, just a park. It’s been compared to New York’s Central Park and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, but this urban wilderness is in a league of its own.
Its past lives — aside from the over 4,200 acres of natural chaparral and parkland landscape — include an aerodrome, an ostrich farm, public housing, multiple civil rights actions, and of course, the stomping ground for P-22.
If you’ve resolved to explore more in 2024, Los Angeles’ great backyard is worth your time. It’s got great hiking trails, compelling history, and stories that overlap with plenty of cool things (and some not so cool) about this city. Here’s your guide to everything Griffith Park.
Before you get up close and personal with nature, it’s important to appreciate how this vast park came into L.A.’s care.
The San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, also known as the Gabrieleno Tongva people, have been the Indigenous caretakers of the L.A. basin long before it was ever called that.
Archaeologists found artifacts in Griffith Park indicating the mouth of Fern Dell Canyon was once a tribal village, with council meeting grounds and a trading post area. The area has been a L.A. historic-cultural monument since 1973, with a plaque making it under the Fern Dell sign.
Things changed under Spanish rule. The area we know as Griffith Park became part of Rancho Los Feliz (yep that Los Feliz), a Spanish land grant owned by José Vicente Feliz. He was a corporal for the Crown who escorted the 11 families who settled L.A. in 1781, so he was a very big deal here.
There’s a bit of lore here too. In 1863, a member of the Feliz family who had rights to the land died of smallpox. Even though his live-in sister and niece were still alive, he gave most of the Rancho to the family’s lawyer, Don Antonio Coronel, in his will.
As lore would have it, Coronel and his lawyer, Don Innocante, “were believed to have dishonestly obtained the dying Feliz’s signature on the will.” In retaliation, his niece Doña Petranilla is said to have gone up to Bee Rock — a peak in the park — to call upon the gods.
“She cursed the land,” said Mike Eberts, a professor and Griffith Park historian. “You know, 'the cattle shall not fatten. There will be pestilence and plague' and so on and so forth. And for the next 50 to 100 years, whenever anything bad would happen in Griffith Park, it’d kind of get blamed on the curse.”
Eberts, who wrote a book on Griffith Park, doesn’t put much stock into the curse and believes a newspaper columnist is responsible for drumming it up. (For a bit of fun, LAist asked the people interviewed for this story if they believed in the curse. Everyone said no, but acknowledged that bad things have happened there.)
In later years, the parkland changed hands a couple more times before falling under the control of a particularly important person in 1882: Griffith J. Griffith.
As you might’ve guessed, Griffith Park is named after this former owner. Griffith emigrated to the United States in 1865 from South Wales. He was a man with a fortune from California’s gold mines, a fake colonel title and a “complicated personality,” Eberts said. (Fun fact: His business card said G. J. Griffith, Capitalist.)
He enjoyed nature, put an ostrich farm on the grounds and set up an aerodrome. According to Eberts, before Griffith eventually donated the land, someone made a pact with Griffith that if there were any gold doubloons found under today’s park center, they’d “split the booty.” Griffith was never short of dreams.
“Among his insights, Griffith was looking out over Los Angeles in the 1890s, which was, you know, a little bit the backside of nowhere, but growing,” Eberts said. “And Griffith really thought that Los Angeles was going to become a great city.”
Griffith really thought that Los Angeles was going to become a great city.
He imagined the city growing around a big park, which seemed a bit lofty at the time because Griffith Park in those days wasn’t actually in the city limits. In fact, for the first few years after Griffith and his wife donated the park, it was outside L.A. boundaries.
"Then, with the annexation of Hollywood in 1910, there was a move to make the park accessible from Hollywood," Eberts said. “That led to the development of not just roads, but Fern Dell itself.”
Fern Dell (also spelled Ferndell) is a half-mile trail that is often described as a hidden gem or an enchanting, shaded path that takes you up to the park from Los Feliz Boulevard, winding through a canyon with the same namesake. (That’s also where the Gabrieleno Tongva village was located.)
When Griffith and his wife donated the park to the city in 1896, it was a 5-square mile Christmas gift to Angelenos, given with the intent of it remaining a free park. In later years, Griffith shockingly shot his wife (she lived), which tarnished his reputation with city leaders.
But their donation still impacts L.A., because not only is there a large swath where nature can run free by our concrete home, it’s free for Angelenos to access too.
“It’s serving what the Colonel [Griffith] wanted,” said Marian Dodge, a past president of Friends of Griffith Park and chair of its history committee. “He wanted it to be a relief valve and it really does that.”
He wanted it to be a relief valve...
Griffith Park has been like the quiet background actor in quite a few big movements in L.A. Here’s a brief look at some of those.
A public housing stint
There are quite a few buildings in Griffith Park, but did you know that a community lived in the park?
At the end of World War II, thousands of people returned to L.A. to build civilian lives. But that influx, combined with an already-growing population of war industry workers, created a severe housing shortage. For military folks, many came here unable to find housing to rent.
In 1946, a temporary response was set up in Griffith Park in just a matter of months: a major city-run public housing project. Rodger Young Village consisted of 750 quonset huts — temporary buildings made of steel — which were intended to house 1,500 families or about 6,000 residents (this took over where that aerodrome used to be).
“[Rodger Young Village] was not just public housing, but the first real integrated public housing in Los Angeles,” said Sarah Lann, the education director for the Los Angeles Conservancy.
Residents were primarily families of color who were discriminated against in the private housing market, making Rodger Young Village a viable home on many levels. But after public housing lost favor and the housing crisis eased, the village was razed in 1954.
There aren’t any remnants at its spot on the northeast corner of Griffith Park, even though the place had everything you’d expect from a town, like a malt shop to a dental office. The land now holds L.A. Zoo and Autry Museum parking lots. Lann says Rodger Young Village reminds her that if you want to understand L.A., “you poke Griffith Park and some amazing new aspect of history rears its head.”
You poke Griffith Park and some amazing new aspect of history rears its head.
Dreaming up Disneyland
Another highlight about Griffith Park comes from Walt Disney himself.
As the story goes, Disney would sit on a bench by the merry-go-round as his daughters rode. That lull, observing his kids have fun, gave him an idea: To create a theme park where children and adults could have fun. And boy, that idea took off. Disney Adults are thriving these days.
If you go to Disneyland, look along Main St. USA for a display with a Griffith Park bench and restored merry-go-round horses.
Civil rights moments
That merry-go-round has seen some things. In 1961, it was the site of a protest with people who were angry over the operator’s treatment of Black teens. The kids reportedly jumped on and off the ride without paying, calling themselves “Freedom Riders” and aligning with the Civil Rights protests then happening.
Reportedly, the 75 police officers who were called to shut down the protest used racial slurs — a contentious example of how law enforcement treated Black communities in the ‘60s.
Seven years later, the merry-go-round was the site of a “gay day” in the park. At least three gay-ins were held in Griffith Park, which was a popular cruising spot for men back then, and those in attendance came to hear activists talk about gay civil rights.
Now, onto enjoying nature at the park.
We’ll spare you the usuals — of course Griffith Observatory is a great time. There is a lot to do and see here, ranging from a Bette Davis picnic area to the Travel Town Museum. But there are a few spots that could be new to you.
You could check out Amir’s Garden, which was created after a brush fire swept through the area in 1971. It’s named after Amir Dialameh, a wine merchant who asked the city if he could repair part of the burnt land. Before passing in 2003, he planted a garden to make a scenic rest spot for hikers with more than 60 varieties of trees.
There’s also a Firefighter’s Memorial that commemorates those who died in the 1933 brush fire that took over Mineral Wells Canyon.
Griffith Park has its own official list of attractions. The L.A. Conservancy also has a list of 30 different sites to check out. Out of those, here are a few options we’d recommend:
Want to navigate the park without getting turned around? Keep this Griffith Park map handy, traveler.
You can find Metro, biking and parking information here. Walking directions are available there too.
For activities in the park, such as camp and bike rental locations, check that out here. Griffith Park has maps of trails, current information on trail closures and special restrictions at the Ranger Station.
The park is open from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
And if you’re hungry after a long hike, we got you covered.
Griffith Park Clubhouse
The Trails
