Touring the devastation

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The Captain’s Roost, a popular hiking spot along one of Griffith Park’s most popular trails, is a complete loss. It includes a ledge and a bunch of oak, pine and other trees along the Mt. Hollywood Trail, which offers hardy hikers stunning views from the Pacific Ocean to the San Fernando Valley. All the trees burned, said Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge.

On Wednesday morning, LaBonge drove carloads of reporters up the closed road to the Observatory parking lot, where several fire trucks remained. Firefighters have a special routine for protecting the Observatory, he said, which reopened last year after a multimillion-dollar renovation.

Some of the scorched chapparal smoldered and helicopters and planes continued to douse the hills with foam. A few deer scurried across the hillside.

LaBonge said that the Observatory had been saved, as well as a patch of 29 trees planted nearby. They were planted in memory of the 29 workers killed in the 1933 Griffith Park fire.

-Amanda Covarrubias