Southern California Observatory

Sun, sand, celebrities and Hollywood Blvd. are on everyone’s list when they take a trip out to Southern California, but there are a lot of other things to do. One of the great places to check out in Los Angeles is the Griffith Observatory.

The Observatory sits on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood and this position gives it an amazing vantage point of the entire Los Angeles Basin. You can see Downtown Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign, and the Pacific Ocean.

The history of the Observatory dates all the way back to 1896 when Griffith J. Griffith donated the land to the city of Los Angeles that the Observatory was to be built on. It was his dream that the public would have access to a place where they could explore space and science. This is one of the reasons why it is free to the public to this day.