the Ultimate High

Today Michael presented me with a fun challenge: hiking up to the Hollywood sign!! We hadn't done it before, which also meant we didn't really know the way. But yes, it was another glorious day spent at Griffith Park. However, since the park covers 53 miles, the whole second half of our adventure "hadn't been sniffed"- not by us atleast. Along the way (about 75% of the way), Michael stopped to examine this camera set up, which is used to monitor wildlife at night.

The "snake trail" was my favorite hiking part, but I didn't get any pictures of that. Well none specifically of the path, weaving through bushes and such. I believe we were on that trail in this photo (above- I love seeing all those other winding paths over Michael's shoulder). Luckily, we didn't see any rattlesnakes (probably too cold still), but as much as he fears them, Michael was talking about snakes for about 15 minutes. It was a thin, but easy trail. It had its ups and downs -literally- often with big rocks and thick tree roots, almost posing as steps. But none of the slippery sand that tends to heighten my frustration.. Hooray!

Our snake trail ended and we only noticed a black paved road with abnormally large crows and a white broken fence on the side. We followed that up, assuming we had to keep going higher. We could see the electric tower ahead, which we knew was on the very top of the hill above the Hollywood sign. I stopped for another informative photo once we reached this "Cahuenga Peak" plaque in a boulder, thanking those whose donations made it a place to explore!

We crossed our fingers one more time, hoping that the next bend would take us to our destination.. And it did! What an exquisite view! Plus, we were able to climb another 50 feet to get even higher. Before we left, a small yellow plane (a Piper?) flew by, but lower to about the height of the Hollywood sign. It was strange being up even higher than the plane.

On the way back, we stopped at Dante's Peak to sit down for a few minutes and snack on our granola bars. And even though we brought a water bottle this time, thank goodness for the cold water faucet they have on the corner- with a bowl chained up for all the doggies! I ended up taking a couple more pictures because I like this little area. Michael reminded me that we needed to get a move on because we probably had close to another 30 minutes until we got back to the car (especially since I kept stopping to take pictures)!

This is one of my favorite views (above). For some reason I really like seeing the Observatory on top of the hills with all the tall buildings further off in the smoggy background. It's so pretty. & Can you believe that just an hour before, we had been aaaall the way over there above the sign?!

Farewell fun Wednesday; until next time! (And because I was paying attention- it was 73 degrees when we got to the Observatory at 2pm and 53 when we got back into the car, just after 5pm.)
**All of these pictures were taken with our new little Samsung ST66 digital camera.** And although you can't tell from the pictures, I was wearing my hand painted "I ♥ My Husband" shirt. The past two nights, Michael and I have enjoyed important discussions on how to strengthen our marriage!!