Secret Stairs #29: Los Feliz—Griffith Park Loop, 3.8 miles, 463 steps.

It will take a few days to recover from this hike, winding south from the Griffith Park golf course in Los Feliz, up to the Griffith Observatory at the top of Mount Hollywood, and then back down past the Greek Theater to the golf course. Along the way we climbed the 181 step staircase granted historical status by the city of L.A., and walked around Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 masterpiece, the Ennis House (pictured below,) a textile-block house inspired by a Mayan temple in Uxmal, Mexico. From there, the dusty, vertical trails winding up the mountainside to the Observatory at the top were murderous for this urban hiker, but, oh, what a blue-sky, panoramic payoff!