The Bronson Caves/Bat Caves

Tomorrow I'm going to investigate a classic L.A. location that I've heard about for years, but have yet to see--the Bronson Caves, also known as the Bat Caves. This is a spot in Griffith Park that's been featured in countless movies and t.v. series.

From the website Seeing-Stars.com:

The Bronson caves are man-made, and were probably created back around 1900, when the area was a rock quarry. (Some say the caves themselves were created especially for the 1922 version of "Robin Hood" with Douglas Fairbanks.) But whatever their origin, they have since been used in countless movies and TV series. They were seen as the 'Bat Cave' in the classic "Batman" TV series, as well as in "Bonanza," "Star Trek: Voyager," "Fantasy Island," "Little House on the Prairie," "The Lone Ranger," "Gunsmoke" and the "Wild Wild West". Plus feature films such as 2002's "The Scorpion King," "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," "Lost Horizon" and the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

The link above details the experience, and offers a map to the parking area as well as a hand-drawn map of the trail to the caves.

Since I haven't been yet, I'm not quite sure what to expect. The group I'm going with labels this as an intermediate hike, and says it'll be about three hours long. I'll bring my camera, and try to post a comment update once I've tried this out.

I've actually been doing a lot of hiking lately. My friend has started a weekly Thursday night hike in another area of Griffith Park. We meet at the Carousel parking lot. Everybody brings wine, cheese, nuts or dried fruit to hike up to a spot we call the "enchanted forest." I've been told parts of the movie "E.T." were shot there. That's where we enjoy our picnic before hiking down. There are great city views at several points in the hike. We've seen coyotes and snakes, and a ton of wildflowers. All in all, this takes us about three hours.

Have any of you been to either of these areas? Tell me your favorite L.A. hikes in a comment below.