Edge of the Sign: Hiking, Views, and Quiet at Lake Hollywood Park

The city falls away in stages as you climb. First there is the low hum of traffic curling off Hollywood Boulevard, then a choir of sparrows and the dry rustle of chaparral. At Lake Hollywood Park, the concrete and neon of Los Angeles feel like a memory you can step out of. From a grassy knoll you can look across the reservoir toward the white letters of the Hollywood Sign and feel the particular, improbable calm of this pocket of the Hollywood Hills—paved picnic paths give way to dirt tracks, and the skyline of a global metropolis folds into ridgelines and sky.