Hollywood Sign Trail (@ Innsdale)

The Hollywood Sign Trail is a 5 mile out-and-back that includes The Innsdale Trail, Mulholland Hwy and Mt. Lee Drive. The 700′ elevation gain is spread along the entire route so this slow and steady incline gets a difficulty of 4/10. The views of the sign from below are great but be ready to be disappointed at the view of the back of the sign from the top.

The Parking – The intersection of Innsdale and Canyon Lake Drive. You’ve come in from Barham along Lake Hollywood Drive and that turns into Tahoe Drive which dead ends into Canyon lake Drive. Turned left and you dead end into this street parking Nirvana.

The Best Thing – The first ½ mile of the Innsdale Trail gives you all the cool Hollywood Sign photo ops you really need for your friends from out of town. Ditch the crowds and get your photos and then you can get back to the clubs and beaches where, well, more crowds I guess.

The Route – Despite the Zero Signage to this trailhead, the signage at the trailhead is significant and proves that I wasn’t lying. The beginning ½ mile on Innsdale Trail is amazing. Wide, smooth, and great views. When the trail emerges onto the busy Mullholland Highway turn left and fear not, within a few hundred feet you will turn left past all of the “Do Not Enter” barricades.

It is confusing and intimidating on purpose. The practical reason for all the “Go Away” signs is that there is no parking up this cul-de-sac and the zillions of cars a day trying to get to the Hollywood Sign would create gridlock and fistfights before breakfast every morning. The completely intended collateral damage is that most tourists will think that the road is private (it is not) and will turn around and try to follow their Google maps on their phone through the neighborhood streets only to give up and say, “close enough.”  Not us, right!

Run on past those barricades (you are still on legendary Mulholland by the way. The driving road turns into Ledgewood at this point) and you will just be running down the street past 4 or 5 houses and then – Boom – a chain across the road. Don’t sweat it – over the chain – keep on down the now dirt road. Get some water from The Last Water Fountain on Mulholland and – boom – another chain. Around the chain and this dirt trail swings behind another half dozen houses.

This tiny dirt trail becomes a private driveway (don’t worry, still legal) that arrives at an impressive gate where there is a kooky, maze-like pedestrian entrance/exit to your left. Take that and head uphill to your left and you are now on Mt Lee Drive. That’s the mountain that the Hollywood Sign is on, Mount Lee. Before you head to the top, take the dirt driveway to your left and in 50 feet you are at the classic Hollywood Sign Photo Op dirt-pad. This is your last view of the sign. Turn around now and no one would know it.

Still need to see the top? Okay, back to the asphalt road headed uphill. The only traffic on this road are maintenance vehicles for the fortress of radio antennae at the top and LAPD vehicles chasing down trespassers climbing off-trail to the sign itself. In less than ½ mile you will pass the intersection where the dirt Mulholland Trail enters to the right. Every iteration of Mulholland is sprinkled throughout this area so be ready – Trail, Highway, Drive, Way, Avenue – just be aware.

The entire Mt Lee Drive hike is maybe 1 mile and passes the Mt. Chapel trail at the top and the Wisdom Tree trail at the very tippy top. When you see a cacophony of chain-link fencing, razor wire, and microware transmission towers you know you are almost at one of the most awe-inspiring tourist destinations in the world. The Hollywood Sign. It’s almost as disappointing as when you go to Hollywood Blvd and have to run away from a urine-soaked SpongeBob character hitting you up for a dollar.

But you did it. Hike the last uphill dirt section and look at the back of the Hollywood Sign through the fencing and if the smog isn’t terrible, you can see Hollywood and beyond. Now head back the way you came. 5 Miles. Boom.