Still hiking

I don’t want to stop hiking just because our big trip is over. It is so much better than being in a gym.  So we tried to get out early and went to Griffith Park.The hills are steep but they aren’t very green. I searched out the one green shady area in the mountains, Amir’s Garden.What started as a one man project has become a wonderful shady hideaway. Since Amir’s death, the park takes some responsibility while volunteers do the rest.Amir came to Los Angeles from Iran, and like many other Iranians immigrants – brought wonderful changes to the city, or in his case, the park.The garden is less than half a mile from Griffith Park Rd, but it’s a steep climb. Today many different paths meander through this lush garden.Some of our hikes in the Alps looked like this, here we only had a short time in the shade, before it was back to the hot sun and the dry surroundings.Not everything is planted in the ground, some are sculptures. There are also benches and even a horse trough, since Griffith Park is a favorite place to ride horses. He planted a fig tree! Since this is a mediterranean climate, the tree thrives here. Right now the fruit is too small, but I do hope that people enjoy it when it’s ripe.This is a boy-scout camp, it reminds me of the picture I took in France, a lone house in a field of green. Well, I had to really crop out all the gold and brown, to get this much green in the picture.Up we went, to a point where we could almost see the Hollywood sign. This is one of the radio towers on Mt. Lee above the sign. I was tired, I wasn’t do a good job of framing my photos, right next to this branch is the foreground you can barely see the D of the sign. It’s there, I swear it is!

And then we trekked back down the hill. Part of the way we were on a service road that actually had some trees that provided shade.This isn’t a pathway, it’s a channel to direct water downhill. There are so many water towers as well as a few resevoirs in this park. Good water management.We took a shortcut, once again, not the best shot, the road below us was really steep! We met someone who was hiking up – ah Los Angeles! We do have some very interesting people here. He said, rightfully so, that going down would really hurt his knees, so he walks up and takes a longer path down.

Then we stopped for tacos on the way home and collapsed. It is easier to hike when it’s not so hot, but a hot hike every few weeks won’t kill me right?

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