Griffith Observatory: A Place Left for Us
I walked through the observatory like I was walking through something sacred. Not just a building, not just a viewpoint but a gift. A promise someone once made and somehow kept.
Inside, I saw a quote beneath a photo of Griffith J. Griffith that stopped me in my tracks:
“If all mankind could look through that telescope, it would change the world.”
He didn’t only build something for the people of his time. He left us a legacy, a place meant for us to keep coming back, keep wondering, keep looking.
They say the observatory sits on land within over 3,000 acres of Griffith Park. It is a vast canvas for sky, hills, trails, and wild space. But even if it’s not precisely, the scale of space is part of the magic: the observatory doesn’t feel boxed-in. It feels expansive.
Just outside the front entrance, directly across from the doors, I spotted a trail marker. It’s a small signpost in the wildness, a reminder that this place was meant to be walked. The trails whisper: keep going, don’t just look up, walk outward, too. Enjoy all of it. Enjoy as much as you can do of it.
On the ground near the observatory, lines carved into the concrete map out solar paths across the year, the solstice and equinox markers. In sunlight, those lines come alive. They are a calendar written in stone and shadow, reminding you that light is always shifting, seasons turn, and we are part of that motion.
This 2-minute full-screen video captures the 360° outdoor view, trail marker, and seasonal floor lines that map the sky’s movement across time. It’s a moment to slow down and see what’s been carved into the ground, a message from the stars to anyone who looks.
Then there’s Alas de México art piece, a pair of bronze wings, gifted from Mexico City through the artist Jorge Marín. These wings are not just decoration; they’re a metaphor. They once sat in storage for years before being installed near the observatory. They waited. The gift waited until it could rise. As a symbol, these wings speak of friendship, unity, legacy, a cultural bridge. Mexico offering wings to Los Angeles feels like a reminder that even when we're separated by borders, art, sky, and spirit connect us.
Standing before those wings, with their empty space between them, I felt that they’re meant for us to step into: to embody flight, to remember that we were meant to stretch upward and outward.
Inside, I watched the pendulum swing, marking time in a silent dance, proving that even what seems still is always moving. It made me feel small and part of something vast.
I walked by the Griffith quote again, letting it echo in my mind: to look, to change, to share. He gave us this place so we might keep using it, keep stepping in, keep seeing.
Then I paused by the Einstein statue, him on a bench, using his finger as a measure. Even the greatest thinkers measure, rethink, question again. It made me feel companioned in curiosity.
Later, I stood at the moon gravity exhibit and stepped on a scale. On the moon, I weighed less. Less weight, but greater wonder. A lightness of perspective.
This place, the observatory, the wings, the markers, the trails, it’s all meant for human scale and for transcendence. Someone built this for us, left it for us, so that we might every so often remember how small we are and how grand the universe is.
I once stood at this very view with someone who knew the city deeply, former Mayor Eric Garcetti. He told me he used to come here every weekend. That stayed with me. Even someone leading a city of millions still made time to stand still and look out at something bigger. Maybe that’s part of what keeps you grounded, the view that reminds you how small we all are. I’ll keep going back. Because the best gifts are meant to be used. The wings, the land, the telescope, they are ours to step into, to breathe through, to carry forward.
Plan your visit:
Restrooms: Outdoors and Indoors (super clean)
Cafe in observatory
Parking at the top :
(stay left or come back around)
$10 per hour, 1 hour minimum
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