Gwynedd StuartThanks to a wet winter, Griffith Park is in a state of uncommon beauty. Besides being more verdant than usual, shocks of orange, yellow and purple wildflowers scale the park's hills, resulting in blinding bursts of color. But it helps to know where and when to look.
On Sunday morning (everyone says morning is the time to go), a couple of friends and I set out to find what had been reported by another friend as one of the more prolific hillsides. We entered from Vermont and parked as near as we could to the golf course lot. Just north of the lot, there's a paved road that climbs up toward the tennis courts and then cuts to the right and curves around the top of the golf course (which looked surprisingly uncrowded, particularly for a pretty weekend day). Finally, I glanced up and toward our left as we rounded the slope of a hill, and said, “Look!”
Credit: Gwynedd Stuart
Almost out of nowhere, the tangle of thousands of flowers presented itself. There's a steep, narrow path that leads directly up to the bloom, but it's dusty and slidey, especially if you don't have the right shoes; I highly recommend just taking the long way by entering at one of the main trailheads north of the golf course lot and climbing till you reach the ridge where you can see Glendale, and then making your way down the other way toward the tennis courts and golf course.
Credit: Gwynedd Stuart
For farther-flung wildflower adventures, I highly recommend checking out the site DesertUSA, which has daily user reports (with pictures) from various spots around Southern California, from Antelope Valley to Chino Hills State Park. According to them, the bloom is currently at a 9 out of 10.
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