Discovering Griffith Park. Casey Schreiner
(unless you’re, like, really chowing down those tacos).
VOLUNTEER GARDENS AND SPECIAL FORESTS
When Los Angeles was still just a growing town and far fewer people explored the trails and byways of Griffith Park, some citizens decided to leave their own personal marks here. These people took advantage of park enforcement’s tendency to look the other way to set up citizen gardens, also called volunteer gardens—homegrown oases of manicured gardens inside the park. While today, trying to do something like this in the park would definitely get you in trouble—not to mention potentially cause issues with the native habitat—these small gardens remain treasured and unique spots within Griffith Park that are still cared for by volunteers.
Captain’s Roost
On the western slope of Mount Hollywood, the Captain’s Roost was the first of the volunteer gardens in Griffith Park—meaning this guy who people knew only as “The Captain” decided to “volunteer” his services to plant and run a garden without asking anybody if he could do so first. This man’s identity remains shrouded in mystery, but by accounts of those who remember, both he and the caretakers who took over after him were not exactly friendly to others. The Captain’s Roost was almost totally destroyed in the 2007 Griffith Park Fire, but volunteers have slowly been bringing the area back to life with new drought-tolerant and native plantings. Today the roost is a small bench and narrow footpath through some lovely sage scrub and two rows of telltale palm trees, which provide an easy way to spot the area from other parts of the park.
Reachable By: Hikes 11, 12, 16, 30
The palm trees at Captain’s Roost are especially photogenic at sunset.
Dante’s View
One of the volunteer gardeners chased away from the Captain’s Roost was a man named Dante Orgolini, a colorful and talkative Italian polymath from Brazil. He was a journalist, actor, insurance salesman, hotel manager, and muralist—his work can be seen in the Santa Barbara Courthouse—who spoke three languages. After his marriage ended, Dante began clearing away chaparral at a viewpoint and hauling in his own plants to build a garden in 1964—again, without permission.
Reachable By: Hikes 11, 12, 16, 26, 30, 32, 33
Reading the history of Dante’s View, it becomes apparent that the man had charisma in spades. Park rangers initially tried to get him to stop building his garden, then they agreed to approve new plants he was bringing in, and eventually they just let him do his own thing and even installed water pipes leading to the garden for him. Dante went out of his way to welcome all kinds of people to Dante’s View—and the kindness was returned. Dante earned a legion of volunteer caretakers who regularly celebrated the garden’s founding every October with champagne toasts (again, against the park’s official rules) and even once with a ten-piece band who marched into the garden. His volunteers pooled money to send Dante to Italy the year before he passed away in 1978 and kept the viewpoint in great shape afterward. The next caretaker, Charlie Turner, continued pouring his heart and soul into the garden, and the trailhead he started at every day was renamed in his honor. Turner passed the baton to his assistant Tom LaBonge, who later served as a somewhat legendary city councilman from 2001 to 2015. One of LaBonge’s last acts as councilman was getting Dante’s View recognized as Los Angeles designated Historic-Cultural Monument #1091.
FEEL LIKE GARDENING?
While many beloved volunteer gardens in Griffith Park were begun by people who started them without asking for permission, good intentions are no longer a justifiable excuse for making any kind of changes to this public park. If you do have a green thumb—or would like to learn how to get one—there’s good news, though: All of these volunteer gardens still need the help of volunteers to thrive! You just need to join up with an organized group.
The Friends of Griffith Park host scheduled cleanups, plantings, and invasive plant removal at many of these locations. Visit www.friendsofgriffithpark.org to see what events they have organized or click Volunteer to propose an event, or organize your own event with Recreation and Parks at www.laparks.org/info/volunteers.
Today, despite fires and increased foot traffic, Dante’s View remains a treasured landmark for locals—and a much-appreciated rest stop with shade and water for hikers and canine companions en route to Mount Hollywood.
Amir’s Garden
Amir’s Garden was founded by Iranian immigrant Amir Dialameh in 1971. An avid hiker (he once walked from Los Angeles to Pennsylvania on a three-month vacation), Amir was hiking near Mineral Wells after a fire and vowed to bring beauty back to the landscape. He’d immigrated to the United States in the 1960s, inspired by what he saw as a very American spirit of volunteerism, and he wanted to bring that into Griffith Park. According to his own recollection on the Amir’s Garden website, “I said to myself, ‘This is really ugly. Somebody ought to build a garden here.’ So I said, ‘I’ll do it’ . . . and I did.”
Reachable By: Hikes 22, 23, 24
The lush vegetation of Amir’s Garden and the distant San Gabriel Mountains make a lovely frame for downtown Glendale.
He got approval from park officials and spent the next few years essentially walking into a rugged, charred landscape to remove debris by hand. He painstakingly carved out a series of terraces and pathways, hauled up flowers and trees (and the water for them, too!), and designed and built planters, benches, tables, and chessboards—all while working a full-time job as a wine merchant. Amir eventually welcomed others who were moved by the spirit of volunteerism to help maintain this now-sprawling oasis.
Amir passed away in 2003, and longtime volunteer Kris Sabo managed his garden and kept Amir’s vision blooming, adding a healthy dose of native California plants to his drought-tolerant original mix until she retired in 2018. Today, the dense greenery of Amir’s Garden still stands out in the park. It remains what Amir intended it to be—“an attractive rest stop for hikers.”
Berlin Forest
Hikers on the Mount Hollywood Trail heading north from the Charlie Turner Trailhead may be confused as to why a street sign showing Berlin, Germany, as being 5795 miles thataway is here in the midst of Griffith Park. But that’s just because they’ve stepped into Berlin Forest.
Reachable By: Hikes 10, 11, 12, 16, 32, 33
In 1967, West Berlin, Germany, and Los Angeles became official sister cities, and nine years later visiting dignitaries brought a gift—a statue of the bear featured in the coat of arms of Berlin (the bear stands guard at the corner of Fern Dell Drive and Los Feliz Boulevard). In 1993, the mayors of several German cities visited and planted pine trees in Griffith Park to establish the Berlin Forest in celebration of this special relationship, and on the fiftieth anniversary in 2017, additional commemorative plaques and signs were installed.
When German dignitaries visit the city, they still often make a stop in Griffith Park to add another tree to the forest. A brush fire in 2018 came perilously close to this area but thankfully spared most of the Berlin Forest. Today, it’s a lovely place for a picnic