GO ON YOUR MERRY WAY
This is a short, vigorous walk that unites two of Griffith Park’s most charming features — the vintage merry-go-round and the ruins of the park’s original zoo.
1 Begin your walk at the parking lot off Crystal Springs Drive that serves the park’s historic merry-go-round, whose calliope organ and hand-carved horses and figures have been in operation since 1937. Leave the parking lot from the driveway where you entered. Turn right, walk past the white gate, and look for a flat trail leading to your left up into a narrow canyon.
2 A few hundred yards up, at the canyon’s end and past the “Fern Canyon Trail Amphitheater,” climb a flight of wooden stairs to a wide dirt road, and head to the right and downhill. Stay on this road for about a mile as it hugs the hillside for half a mile or more.
3You’ll begin to get fine views as you go, of big green spaces like the park’s Wilson and Harding golf courses in the foreground and Forest Lawn Memorial park in the background.
4 At a sharp right-hand bend in the road, shaded by eucalyptus and sycamore trees, turn downhill onto a narrow trail that runs beside a dry creek bed. At the bottom of that trail, meet a paved road and turn right. (Or, if you feel like a bigger hike, stay on the dirt road a little longer, then take the next left turn up to great park views from Bee Rock.)
5 Here at the Crystal Springs Picnic Area, you will find the remnants of the old Griffith Park Zoo, which opened in 1912 with a collection of only 15 animals and closed in 1966 to make way for the current animal park. Still in place are many of the original pens, cages and service buildings. This green space is also home to outdoor Shakespeare performances and classical music concerts in the summer.
6 Begin the route back by retracing your steps to the paved path behind the animal enclosures. Climb a little hill, then follow a wide dirt road as it hugs the hillside back to the merry-goround parking lot.