Runyon Canyon

If there's one place that's uber-trendy for a hike in LA, it's Runyon Canyon. It has great 360 degree views of downtown LA all the way to the Pacific Ocean and from the Valley down to Palos Verdes. You can see the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory too, so it was obviously on the top of my list to explore. The other cool thing about Runyon Canyon is that it's officially a dog park and there is a large off-leash area where you can let your pup run free and socialize during your hike. We unfortunately couldn't do that with Brooklyn...he has a tendency to get overly excited, not listen to us, and go off on his own exploration not realizing that he's leaving us behind. He hates missing out...guess I can't blame him. 

We did this hike at the beginning of February, the day after I flew back from NYC. It was a lovely 72 degrees out and the warmth and sunshine were quite welcoming (although it wasn't THAT cold when I was in New York, it was actually unseasonably warm there...but still cold to me). This was only my second hike after starting to walk again, and I definitely wasn't confident in my steps. However, the trails we took were pretty easy, but there were some spots near the top that I had to have Dennis' help getting down. Now that I'm more comfortable (and better at) walking, I want to go back and try the hike from the very bottom in Hollywood all the way to the top. We kind of cheated and started halfway up by going in the back way.