Day 2 of 2021 Los Angeles Trip: Parker Mesa Overlook and Griffith Observatory

Sunday May 16, 2021. My other friends that lived around Los Angeles area were busy, so I spent the day between hiking and resting on the beach, before heading to Griffith Observatory for Los Angeles’ skyline at night.

Downtown Los Angeles at Night

With my friends busy and I by myself, I resorted to my favorite activity of hiking to kill the day, before flying back to east coast tomorrow morning. Originally, I hoped to hike Cucamonga Peak for today. It’s a 21.2km roundtrip hike with 1313m elevation gain. Feeling a bit tired from yesterday’s activities, I didn’t manage to wake up early enough this morning for Cucamonga Peak, so I resorted to my backup option of Parker Mesa Overlook, located along the pacific shore in Topanga State Park.

Hiking Parker Mesa Overlook

I started my hike at “Los Leones Trailhead”. While the official parking lot was small, there was ample street parking available along Los Leones Dr. The other trailhead of the park, “Paseo Miramar Trailhead”, was located in a residential neighborhood and had no public parking.
I decided to take the shorter but steeper “El Ocaso Trail” up to Parker Mesa Overlook, then take the “Paseo Miramar Trail” fireroad down, making it an 8km loop trail with about 400m elevation gain.

Here’s GPS tracking:

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Gate at Trailhead

Feels pretty ceremonial. It’s worth noting that while it’s easy to follow, “El Ocaso Trail” wasn’t a well-marked trail on maps. Once past this gate, one had to make a left and cross a drainage to stay on it.

Trail

The beginning part of the trail, right from trailhead, was pretty steep as the trail ascended onto a slope.

Trail

Otherwise, the trail wasn’t very wide through the bushes. From time to time one had to come in contact with the bushes.

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Steep Trail
About two-thirds the way to Parker Mesa Overlook, there were some more steep sections.

Steep Trail
About two-thirds the way to Parker Mesa Overlook, there were some more steep sections.

Trail

 
 
Santa Monica Bay
A constant sight as one made its way up the mountain.

Trail up Mountain

A faint opening in the bushes. While the ground felt pretty hot mid-May, the occasional breeze from the sea provided vital cooling, so that I didn’t have to sweat too much to stay alive.

Parker Mesa Overlook

Parker Mesa Overlook was just over 2km from parking lot through “El Ocaso Trail”, and it took me just over an hour to reach it. Once up there, I joined a few other groups to appreciate the nearby scenery.

West Los Angeles Highrises before Downtown Los Angeles

Parker Mesa Overlooking Santa Monica Bay

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Santa Monica Bay

Santa Monica Bay

Santa Monica Bay

Santa Monica Beach

Couple at Parker Mesa

While the sight of Santa Monica Bay and distant downtown Los Angeles were stunning, it’s a shocking sight as one turned around facing inland, with smoke billowing from a not-too-distant wildfire. The contrast of an extensive metropolis as a great achievement of civilization and the raw powers of nature could hardly get clearer than this.

Man Watching Wildfire

Wind was blowing the wildfire farther inland, that’s good for my lungs but bad for the firefighters. Anyway, I moved on to the fireroad heading downhill.

Flowers
The most beautiful one encountered today.

 
Trail
After Parker Mesa Overlook, most of the remaining trail was a wide-open fire road.

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Mountains

Mountains

Mountains

Mountains

Mountains

Somewhere along the fire road, I got a front-row view of the raging wildfire and the efforts trying to have it under control. It’s shocking to have the raging fires and million-dollar mansions in the same photo, and appalling to learn that this fire was started by arson.

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Wildfire

Wildfire

Wildfire

Wildfire

Helicopter Fighting Wildfire

Helicopter Fighting Wildfire

Homes Threatened by Wildfire

Helicopter Landing
Overflying a depleted reservoir.

Wildfire

Scorched Mountain

Leaving wildfire behind, I continued down the trail back to civilization.

Trail Downhill

The fireroad ended near a place called “Paseo Miramar Viewpoint”, which was close to the other trailhead in the residential neighborhood. It’s a bit crowded, and I didn’t think the views there were as good as on top, so I didn’t linger for long before continuing downhill.

 
Santa Monica Bay

 
Trail
The final 2km was back in the woods.

About 3 hours after I started the hike, I was back at the parking lot. After a short rest, I drove to my next stop of the day, Santa Monica.

Santa Monica

The last time I visited Santa Monica, it was at night. While the flashy neon lights of Santa Monica Pier were impressive, the rest of the neighborhood felt dull and stagnant at night.
But this time, I visited during the day, and felt the usual city vibe, starting with this late lunch that tried its best to appear healthy.

Lunch

While views of the ocean were great, it’s disheartening to see loads of homeless people roaming and ruining the green spaces above Santa Monica Cliffs. In a similar way, the grass was so trodden over and inundated with squirrel food, that it’s no longer possible to lie on it without getting oneself dirty.

It’s pretty crowded at Santa Monica Pier, and since I enjoyed my last visit at night, I skipped it this time. Instead, I headed towards the beach, crossing a few pedestrian bridges and recalling the Michael’s foot race scenes from GTA5.

At the end, I opted to sit on the beach for almost an hour, listening to the waves and enjoying the breeze. The ocean was a bit blinding from the afternoon sun, so it wasn’t the best experience. But I couldn’t think of any better way to kill the time before I was contacted by a friend and had some errands sorted out.

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Distant Santa Monica Pier

Beach Houses

Pacific Coast Highway

Pacific Coast Highway

California Incline

Santa Monica Cliff

Santa Monica Cliff

Mountains to the North
Surprisingly, there’s no sign of the wildfire looking from the beach.

Griffith Observatory

After sorting out the errands, it’s getting late, so I made my way to my final stop of the day, Griffith Observatory.
Last time I was in Los Angeles, I visited Griffith Observatory during the day, and the haze was obscuring much of the view against mid-day sun. This time, I chose to arrive before sunset, and watch the city lights turned on as darkness faded away, much better for photography.

So after battling through downtown LA traffic, I arrived at 6:45pm. There’s free parking at Greek Theater, but I was lucky and found the last spot in the small (free) Bird Sanctuary trailhead lot, which was 800m of walking to Griffith Observatory. (During my visit the small parking lot at Griffith Observatory was closed due to COVID, and all spaces towards its west were paid parking.)

Griffith Observatory Overlooking Los Angeles

The observatory itself was closed due to COVID, so was the passage around its southern dome with the best views. However, both balconies towards its west/east were open, and it’s only reasonably crowded, meaning an open spot would pop up from time to time.
So I spent an hour at Griffith Observatory, from 7:24pm to 8:30pm, the golden hour of sunset for photography.

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Hollywood Sign

Griffith Observatory

Griffith Observatory

Griffith Observatory

Griffith Observatory at Night

Santa Monica Skyline

Santa Monica Skyline

Santa Monica Skyline

Mountains to the West

East Los Angeles

East Los Angeles

West Los Angeles

West Los Angeles

West Los Angeles

West Los Angeles at Night

Downtown Los Angeles

Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles at Night

Downtown Los Angeles at Night

Downtown Los Angeles at Night

This concluded my day (and my weekend) touring Los Angeles, after which I headed back to my overnight lodge before tomorrow morning’s flight back to Washington DC.
END

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