Holiday to Indian Wells in Mar 2025: Day 3 – Morning in Hollywood

By Nige on March 7, 2025 at 10:51 am
Type: Post
Story: Holiday to Indian Wells in Mar 2025 Category: Travel
Tags: Hilton | Holidays | Hollywood

First night in a significantly different timezone is never a recipe for a good night’s sleep. Last night was no different.

I woke at about midnight, having had about 5 hours of unbroken sleep. Vick had about an hour more than me.

I was overjoyed when I found a local Starbucks that opened at 3:30am. The timing didn’t quite work for the Vickster, so we walked out of the hotel at 4am.

It was one of these stores that opened an ordering window. The store itself didn’t open until 6am. That worked for us.

It was very cold but quiet on the streets, and it felt relatively safe.

After showers back at the hotel, we were in breakfast at 6am. It was a classic Hampton breakfast, which wasn’t great for Vick.

But we had another Starbucks visit planned for later in the morning, so necessary food top-ups could be purchased at that point.

We grabbed an Uber to take us up to Mulholland Drive so that we could hike up to the Hollywood Sign.

Previously I had started the same hike from the Innsdale Trailhead, which is about a further mile away, so on this occasion I decided to err on the side of caution. We didn’t want any knee or heel issues!

The forecast suggested that it was going to be gloriously clear and sunny today. The Uber driver suggested that the day after rain in LA is always clear and sunny. We were happy with that theory.

It felt amazing heading back up the trail to the Hollywood Sign. It was chilly, sunny, quiet, and really clear.

The only downside was that the sun was really low, which meant that the shadows were quite prominent.

It was much better than the last time I came up early in the morning back in May 2024, when visibility was limited.

I could hardly see the super-large letters of the Hollywood Sign, standing just 50 yards behind them!

The walk up was pretty easy, partly because I knew exactly what was coming and how far we needed to walk. That always makes it feel easier.

We saw one or two other hikers on the way up and most of the them were friendly. In fact, one or two of them we saw twice, which would suggest they had been up once, headed down and then headed back up to the sign again!

The view from the top was as good as we could have hoped for. It was really clear at the top, although it was still a little hazy over downtown LA.

We hung around for about 15 mins or so, enjoying the clear view of the surrounding area. Quite impressive.

On the way back down, the shade was less emphasized and it was generally brighter all around. The sun was still fairly low, and it was starting to warm up a bit.

We ordered an Uber to pick us up, on the way down. We expected it could be a fair wait for an Uber, based on how early in the day it was.

As it happens, we received confirmation of a driver being on his way as we finished off our hike back down to civilisation.

We ended up waiting just 5 mins or so at the junction of Mulholland Drive and Ledgewood Drive.

Back to the hotel, and we briefly popped out to our nearest Starbucks for that promised breakfast top up.

We then walked on a little further down Vine Street to find a CVS, where we stocked up on treats, just in case we got hungry first thing in the morning.

Interestingly, I also found a small stockpile of Strawberry Cheesecake Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, which I hid away, just in case we wanted to come back after dinner for pudding!

Holiday to Indian Wells in Mar 2025