Ryan's Journal

Through some random walk on the net, I learned the old camp Batman TV series, which I would occasionally watch and be confused by as a child - why are there weird eyebrows drawn on his mask, why is the camera always tilted, what's with the ridiculous villains and plots, etc. - filmed the Batcave exterior scenes in Griffith Park. Truth be told, I have a mildly active dislike of the series, but it's a Griffith attraction, so there you go. This route doesn't actually go to the Bronson Cave, I was making some explorations to see if there were off-road paths coming from Vermont Canyon over to Bronson Canyon. There may be, but not this way. The point where I jump from one trail to another is down a fairly sheer hill, and there isn't an obvious route continuing forward to cross over the rather imposing topography. It's slightly unfortunate that, given Vermont Canyon is your closest park entrance, the fastest route requires walking along in the city instead of in the park. It's plausible to hike within the park, but I estimate it would take an additional four miles one way following trails. Tourist attraction, tourist hiking path.

Later in the week, I went in pursuit of the easy route to Bronson Cave, but it is badly mislabeled on Google Maps, and it went without examination on that trip. It is physically located right near the Canyon Avenue entrance, not a half-mile north where Google has it pinpointed. The trail to it is gated off for cars (film crew access road) and is basically a U-turn to the right, back towards the entrance. It's pretty clear what it is on a trail map. On a terrain map, there's an extremely unnatural looking chunk of a hill missing just to the east of the beginning of park boundaries; the "cave" is there (it was a gravel quarry, the cave, actually a tunnel, is man-made).

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