Hiking the Hollywood Sign (or our hike to the entrance of the underworld)

We had a short sweet visit with Jeremy's sister Kristen and her family this weekend. It was a jam packed 24 hours we spent together full of lots of good times, good eats, and good memories. She has been wanting to take us on the hike up to see the HOLLLYWOOD sign and this visit was the perfect opportunity.

We watched the new Percy Jackson movie The Lightning Thief for several hours of our trip down to San Diego, back to LA, and then home. There is one scene in this movie that intrigued the kids the most. In the movie Percy and his gang must go to the underworld to talk to Hades and rescue Percy's mom. The entrance to the underworld is through the HOLLYWOOD sign. The scene in the movie shows Percy and his buddies entering a magical doorway in the letter "H". Trevor was especially thrilled to see this "entrance" to verify the reality of his new favorite movie. So, to say that Trevor was excited to take this hike is definitely an understatement. His energy and excitement were contagious as he helped the DVD player in the car play and replay the HOLLYWOOD sign scene over and over and over.

We began at the bottom of the hill. The beginning. A very good place to start.

The smaller children got to be carried for part of the journey.

We saw some wildlife on the way up and back.

After about an hour of hiking we made it to the top! You don't actually get to touch the sign because it's fenced off due to vandalism. You hike up to the backside of the letters. Check out this view from the top. Read from right to left - you can see the back of the H,O,L,L, and Y.

And check out this lovely view of the LA skyline. Mmmmm. Smog. It was worse than usual today because of a local fire - normally the smog wouldn't be this bad.

Family Pictures at the top of the hill

The children were proud of themselves for making the hike all the way up to the sign. They were not disappointed to find out that there wasn't really an entrance to the underworld at the base of the sign. (Although, they did a thorough search for it when we got there.) The kids are already enjoying telling everyone about their hike to the HOLLYWOOD sign.

It was a fun active way to spend the afternoon. Thanks to our great hosts and excellent LA traffic navigators, Kristen and Doug, for taking us on an adventure of a lifetime.