January 4: Griffith Park





 Today we ate breakfast at our hotel in Los Angeles and then left around 9am to drive to the bottom of the hiking trail to Griffith Park. It was about 40 degrees out and it warmed to about 60 degrees by the end of the hike, so the weather was great. Pictured below, Duck is happily riding in Corie’s bag and ready for adventure. The hike was moderate like reviews had said and was relatively quick. On the way up we passed multiple Peruvian pepper trees(that were not originally native to California) which produce berries that smell like peppers. The berries can be used as a spice or made into an oil. I enjoyed exploring and taking pictures of all the different flora and fauna, especially the red thistle that multiple yellow jackets were enjoying. The red thistle was not surprising to see because it is native to California. The views from the observatory gave a clear view of Los Angeles and allowed us to clearly see the smog layer that is over the city. The thin brown line looked like dusty clouds that you would see during a sunrise or a sunset. Once we hiked back down, we stopped at a small cafe before driving to our next hotel. While driving to Palm Springs we passed more of the desert landscape and many mountains, we even saw a Mammoth. Lots of the power lines and telephone poles are mis-shapingly covered to look like palm trees. We also saw a group of windmills in what is known as a Wind farm

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