Running in LA: Griffith Park

Great Places to Run in Los Angeles

Mar 11, 2009 Austin Diamond

There are many scenic running trails in Los Angeles, to suit everyone's training needs.

Los Angeles is a vast and diverse area. Each area below offers something a little different and is great for all types of runs.

Running in Griffith Park

Griffith Park is a vast recreation center located in Los Angeles. According to the LAcity website, Griffith Park is “the largest municipal park with urban wilderness area in the United States.” The address can be found at the LAparks website. For general directions to get into the Griffith Park area, click here. The parking lot of Pecan Grove, a good starting point, is located on Zoo Drive between the Victory Boulevard bridge and Los Angeles Zoo.

Griffith Park has myriad scenic trails and roads that are ideal for runners of all levels.

Places to Run

With Griffith Park, it is not a problem of finding a run; it is a problem of finding which run to do. One can run miles on flat roads, undulating roads, flat dirt trails, or steep dirt trails. If starting from Pecan Grove, one can turn left and either run on a slight, long uphill along the road or on a dirt trail. After about 1.25 miles (if on the road), there will be a trail on the left (a little bit past Traveltown), and a trail to the right. The trail on the left heads up a steep mountain and connects to other hilly trails. The trail on the right can also be taken for a while. If starting from Pecan Grove and turning right, continuing straight along the trail will lead one around the golf course, and making a right approximately one quarter-mile from the start will lead you to a hilly trail (this can be connected with the aforementioned steep mountain trail).

Another popular run with a substantial elevation climb is taking either a road closed to cars or the Mount Hollywood trail for a view of the Hollywood sign above and the city below.

Here are good descriptions of many of the major trails Griffith Park has to offer. The site provides an extensive list of trails and a rough map.

Why Come Here?

The aforementioned paths are just a small sample of what Griffith Park has to offer. The park is great for long runs—there are miles and miles of places to run, so re-tracing steps in order to get in more mileage should never be necessary. There are usually many runners, joggers, walkers, and horses about, so there should be good company.

Great Places to Run in Los Angeles: Part I discusses running in Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Park and running in Malibu Creek State Park.

Great Places to Run in Los Angeles: Part II discusses running in the Sepulveda Basin area.

Great Places to Run in Los Angeles: Part III discusses running around the San Vicente/Santa Monica pier area.

The copyright of the article Running in LA: Griffith Park in Running & Marathons is owned by Austin Diamond. Permission to republish Running in LA: Griffith Park in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.