Come back to the observatory
Monday, November 12th, 2007
As of November 3rd, you can now drive all the way up to the Griffith Observatory without making a reservation in advance. Before, you had to call ahead and make a reservation just to visit the observatory, taking the fun out of wandering around and just deciding to hang out there. (That was most of the fun of going!) But now that the building has been open for a year, during which time 650,000 people have visited, the observatory is now completely open to the public to show up any time they want. They will now have parking attendants, as well, to help deal with the extremely limited parking and prevent any traffic jams from occurring. The mayor, in his press release about the unrestricted access to the observatory, still strongly encourages people to either carpool or take a cab up to the observatory if they must use a car, or else walk or ride a bike up there. He also points out that the numerous hiking trails around Griffith Observatory are fully open, if you felt the need to get a little more exercise when you’re in the area.
This also means that the complimentary shuttle service, which has been in operation since the grand reopening last November, will stop. This was done mainly to keep the disruption of traffic in the nearby neighborhoods at a minimum, the mayor said, but now that things are returning to normal and there will be full-time parking attendants to guide drivers to either the observatory’s parking lot or nearby street parking, traffic should still not be a problem.
Now that the idea is in your head, stop by if you’re in the neighborhood! I only have happy memories of Griffith Observatory as a kid, and that’s saying something, judging by the number of dull cultural things I’d been dragged to all my life. Besides, they have a cool new show with Leonard Nimoy (sigh) hosting that sounds really awesome. It’s every hour on the hour and talks about the history and renovation of the observatory.
The observatory is open every day but Mondays, and they strongly encourage you to try and come on weekdays, when it’s less crowded. Now go!
