A long layover in the wilds of Los Angeles

After the paradise of Vanuatu we were off to South America. A combination of available routes and budget saw us make the journey via Fiji and Los Angeles. So – what to do with a couple of days in LA, with kids that tend to prefer the wilderness over the sidewalk?

Snowball fights in mountainous Wrightwood

Marking the north east edge of greater Los Angeles is the Angeles National Forest, which itself is dominated by Mt San Antonio and Mt Baldy. On the northern slope lies the small town of Wrightwood. Several factors drew us here. Rafe in particular was craving cold weather and snow after six months characterised mostly by heat, and this time of year there is a reasonable chance of snow in either Wrightwood or Big Pines just up the road. Second, Jim needed to swap out a couple of pairs of Darn Tough socks under warranty and the only store that does this in person in the area is in Wrightwood – Mountain Hardwear general store. Finally, and this is one of the reasons Mountain Hardwear provides this sock replacement service, that the Pacific Crest Trail passes nearby making Wrightwood a popular refuelling and refitting point for thru hikers on their 4265km way from Mexico to Canada (regular readers may recall we met thru hiker Jack in New Zealand who has made this journey). Jim has long harboured to the ambition to take on this trek, so knew of Wrightwood already.

Wrightwood really delivered for us, and not just the socks. As we turned off the interstate and up into the valley we passed by the striking Mormon Rock formations. These Miocene age sandstone beds of the Cajon Formation have been tilted and exposed by the famous San Andreas Fault and have been moulded into striking forms by wind, rain and occasional snow. Legend has it they were named after Mormon settlers arrived here from Utah in the 1800s used caves in the rocks for shelter. We were to stop here on the return journey for a late picnic lunch.

Excitement built as the first flakes of snow fell on the windscreen just as we came into Wrightwood. Little more than a couple of hundred metres further up the road the small additional altitude resulted in sustained snowfall all around us. This was the first new snowfall in the area for the last ten days, and as we were visiting on a weekend we found ourselves in amongst many other denizens of Los Angeles out to get their skiing / snowboarding / tobogganing fix. Undeterred, we sought out a quiet area away from the roadside and the ski resort at Big Pines to run about in the snow-laden forest launching snowballs at each other. This was the first time on the trip that we had been in temperatures anywhere near the -2 (before windchill) that we had here, let alone snow.

With chilly faces and new socks in hand we we retreated back down the valley to Mormon Rocks for a late lunch before there was too much danger of getting stuck in the snow in the hire car (which turned out to be a Dodge Charger, despite having booked the very different and cheapest Kia Rio – thanks Avis!).

Mormon Rocks, certainly the small part of the area that we visited, was pretty exposed. This combined with a stiff breeze laden with sleety rain meant we were decidedly chilly as we explored the nearby sandstone features. Rafe however was undeterred, never missing an opportunity to climb something.

Hollywood hills and vistas

Beverley Hills
That’s where I want to be

Weezer, 2005

We didn’t go to Beverley Hills, but we did gaze out over it, while taking in the rest of the outstanding vistas from the top of Mount Hollywood. This is not the same place as the Hollywood sign is but allows for a good view of the famous letters.

After driving up North Vermont Canyon Road past the Greek Theatre, and parking at the roadside on Western Canyon Road, we made the easy walk up towards the Griffith Observatory – an imposing building dating from 1935 with free entry for planetarium shows, exhibits and telescopes to learn about the cosmos. We then climbed on upwards to the top of Mount Hollywood, with spectacular 360 degree views. The famous Hollywood sign is on Mount Lee, the next hill over with Beverley Hills, Hollywood and Burbank surrounding it.

It would have been a further four miles to walk across to the foot of the famous sign itself. The day after a long flight we were already stretching the attention of the kids going up this far, and we weren’t sure we had enough time on the parking ticket, so we headed back down without getting up close to the Hollywood sign.

Huntingdon Beach

There is an ongoing dispute between the California cities of Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach as to the first location of surfing within the USA, and the use of the term ‘Surf City’. Huntington Beach successfully trademarked the term in 2004, so now has official use of the slogan. We had heard it was an interesting spot with some character to it, so this would be our destination the next day. On this low season day there were few people about, the vacant parking spaces serving to highlight how busy it must get in the summer. The car parks are enormous, matched only by the beach itself – both in length and depth. Massive. But on this day it was quiet with occasional light drizzle on the sea breeze. Perfect for us as a counterpoint to our recent warm weather. We parked at the southern end of the state beach and walked north along the beach, up into the old town at the central pier and a hearty lunch with great service at the Sugar Shack Cafe. Unfortunately the reportedly excellent International Surfing Museum was closed as we visited on a Monday.

Party time, excellent!

The cinematic oeuvre is storied with monumental works on weighty topics, the most powerful of which have come to have an influence on world events beyond purely cultural bounds. But few can touch the Bill and Ted series for cultural impact and epic LOLs. And so it was that having passed by the exit to San Dimas, nothing could be said over the next few days without being accompanied by a ‘bodacious’, ‘bogus’ or ‘party on!’.

How we did it

We landed into LAX mid afternoon from Fiji which meant we were in no hurry collecting the hire car. We chose to hire rather than rely on public transport or Uber as we knew we would be wanting to venture beyond the suburbs of town a couple of times at least. This gave us good flexibility.

As for lodgings, budget was a big factor in our choice. We could perhaps have stayed at the airport itself but this would have put us a long way from at least two of the day trips we wanted to make to the Griffith Observatory and Wrightwood. The centre of town was out of our price range so we ended up in picking the Home2 Suites in Montebello, which is a suburb / city to the east of Los Angeles. This worked well for several reasons a) the location was great, Montebello itself was pleasant with places to eat and shops to stock up and close enough to the freeways north towards Wrightwood and south towards Huntingdon, yet reasonable for the drive in towards Griffith Observatory without getting embroiled in the centre of LA, b) it was a surprisingly good hotel for our needs – a new hotel with a large room including kitchen which kept our eating costs down and the bonus of excellent barbecues (Napoleon, for the barbecue enthusiasts) in the yard for cooking on! A swimming pool and jacuzzi were popular with Odessa and the extensive breakfast buffet was a particular highlight.