Have you seen Rebel Without A Cause? ☝️

Even if you haven’t, you probably know of it. It’s one of the most iconic movies of all time. A great many of the scenes from this movie have been irrevocably burned into the consciousness of every American, perhaps James Dean’s face most of all. That dude died when he was 24 years old, and is even still today one of the most famous people in the world. That’s the power of Hollywood.

Isn’t that what the allure of Los Angeles really boils down to? On some level, everybody wants to feel like they’re in a movie. And since so many of the movies we watch happen to be set in Los Angeles, all we need to do to fulfill that desire is get in a car or in a plane and go to Los Angeles. This is the city that is largely responsible for writing and advancing the lore of modern civilization, and in doing that, it has given itself the starring role. So when you get here, everywhere you turn you recognize things from movies. These are things that didn’t necessarily start out special, but now that millions of people have seen them in films, the placebo effect has turned them into living legends.

So today is the first time that Peter’s Big Adventure is visiting Los Angeles. And we’re going to start with a trip to Griffith Observatory. Why? Because it was a famous place that I was interested in. And why is it famous? First and foremost, because of Rebel Without A Cause. The scene above is one of 2 in this movie that featured Griffith Observatory prominently. It wasn’t the first time this place made it into a movie, but it is definitely what made this place iconic. Since then it has been in tons more movies, including The Terminator, Back To The Future, Back To The Future Part II, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Yes Man, Friends with Benefits, La La Land, and more. And on top of that, even more TV shows. You can see a full list here.

So I’m just as brainwashed as the rest of us. But Griffith Observatory is actually gorgeous! Everybody who visits LA should come here.

**Some Quick History**

**The Griffith Observatory Origin Story**

We have the 19th century industrialist Griffith J. Griffith (great name for not a great guy—he tried to kill his wife) to thank for this place! He donated 3,015 acres of land to the city of Los Angeles in 1896 for purposes of creating this observatory. He wanted to make the practice of astronomy more open to the public. Up to this point, most observatories were located on remote mountain tops, far from the public. It seems to me this might have been more about getting away from all the city lights in order to clearly see the stars than it was about elitism… but hey 🤷🏻‍♂️ I AIN’T MAD ABOUT IT.

Griffith consulted with a bunch of the presiding astronomers and physicists of his day to personally draw up the plans for this place. Although he died before the observatory was completed and officially opened to the public, the project was finished as planned and enjoyed instant popularity among Los Angeles residents. It was actually a stipulation of Griffith’s will that admission to the observatory be free, so it has had long-standing popularity pretty much from day 1. In fact, when it first opened in 1935, it logged 13,000 visitors in the first 3 days. And the first movie that included shots of this place, The Phantom Empire, was released that same year!

The observatory was/is equipped with a 12-inch Zeiss refractor telescope that you can actually go look through. Since 1935, an estimated 7 million people have looked through it to catch a glimpse of the stars, which makes it the most used telescope in history by far. In WWII the planetarium was used to train pilots in celestial navigation. Later, in the 1960s, it would be used for that same purpose as a part of the NASA space program. In 2002 this place underwent a major renovation mostly focused on its visitor-facing amenities. Now there’s a café, a gift shop, and a movie theater. I’m sorry to tell you we’re not going into much of this stuff today though. We’re here to catch the sunset!

giphy (2).gif — **Hiking To Griffith Observatory**

To catch that sweet sunset 👌

The hike up to Griffith Observatory starts in Griffith Park, which is a BIG place. There are a number of different trails that lead up here, but they’re all relatively easy. If you choose the shortest route, it’s about 1.4 miles. You should be able to do it in about 20-25 minutes. Of course there is also a road that leads straight up to the top where you can park in a parking lot… but that’s no fun. And the parking situation up here can be even less fun, so I think it’s best to do this on foot. Here are a few snapshots from the trail:

We had been aiming to time our arrival at the top of this ridge with sunset, and I’d say we did a pretty good job of it. As soon as we got up high enough that there was a clear view out towards the city of Los Angeles, golden hour was upon us. The colorful rays of the sun seemed to be getting trapped in the thick smog that hung over the city, creating a gorgeous golden dreamscape. Or maybe it wasn’t smog. For all the shit people talk about the air pollution in LA, things sure felt crisp and clean up here! Anyway, I barely needed to touch the vibrance or saturation on these photos to make them look like this.

Off in the distance you’ll see the Hollywood sign. There is actually quite a large network of trails up here that can get you over the Hollywood sign if you want to make a day of it. But I believe there is also a road that goes straight to it as well. This is the closest I plan on getting to this sign, so drink in these pictures!

Also up here, basically on the front lawn of the observatory, there is a commemorative bust of James Dean, which was put here because of those famous scenes in Rebel Without A Cause.

So now let’s turn our attention to the observatory itself. It’s a beautiful white building perched on a cliff overlooking the whole of Los Angeles. It is built in the Greek and Beaux-Arts style, which reminds me—you might also be interested to know that the famous Greek Theater, which is built in this same architectural style, is also part of the Griffith estate. It was a Wednesday evening when we visited, but even still there was a substantial number of visitors here. I’m sure this place gets crazy on the weekends. But if I lived in LA, I would come here all the time. It’s extremely picturesque.

The pictures above pretty much only show views of the front of the structure. Once you climb the stairs and get yourself around to the other side of the observatory, there is no shortage of places where you can get incredible views over the city. There is a walkway that takes you across the full length of the other side of this building, offering panoramic views of the entire Los Angeles basin, straight out to the Pacific. The visibility was quite low when we were here, so we couldn’t see the ocean, but I was not bothered. There was still quite a bit to drink in. We did a few laps of the building and eventually settled in a spot we liked to watch the golden dreamscape below us fade to shades of blue, eventually giving way to dusk.

Now, if you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you’re probably aware of my obsession with finding high-up vantage points over cities and photographing the light change as the sun sets. Needless to say, Griffith was PERFECT for this. These pictures were taken facing eastward, so you won’t actually see the sun set in these pictures, but you’ll see the light change, and that’s really where the beauty is if you ask me. I love watching the sky change colors.

You know, LA is not a perfect place. There’s a lot that has turned me off about this place in the past. Traffic. Congestion. Pollution. Constant threat of fire and earth quakes. Logistical suffocation. Expensive cost of living. General superficiality. But I think my mind is starting to change.

Don’t get me wrong, all of that bad stuff still exists. But there’s also a lot of good here. The city is endless. There’s always another restaurant, another neighborhood, another chance. There’s endless culture and diversity. And there’s actually a lot of nature close by. It’s not quite on the level of the Bay Area (my first love) but the Santa Monica Mountains are quite formidable, and aren’t very far away! And even when you’re annoyed with all the traffic, it won’t be long before you find yourself driving over a ridge to get somewhere. And when you look out the mountain at the city twinkling below you, this is what you’ll see…

I’m sure I’ll talk more about my thoughts on Los Angeles in future posts, but for now, I’m going to cut this one off and leave you with this dreamy mash-up of Star Trek sampling. I thought it was appropriate given how much we’ve talked about the film industry and astronomy in this article. Shout out to Nik for showing us this song. FYI the video for this makes it about 300% better. Watch it here.