OPEN YEAR ROUND- Griffith Park
The Trail to Amir’s Garden is a 1.1 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located LA’s Griffith Park. This shady rest stop and memorial garden features beautiful wild flowers and water-bearing, fire-resistive succulents interspersed with natives and memorial trees and plants. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, running, nature trips, and horses and is accessible year-round. It is rated as moderately difficult trail. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
The History of Amir’s Garden
Amir Dialameh worked a steep hill in Griffith Park for than three decades with a pick and shovel and turned a scorched, barren landscape into a lush, shaded grove that is visited daily by a steady stream of hikers and horseback riders.
For thirty-two years, Dialameh worked in the garden most days of the week, hiking up a service road to the rugged Mineral Wells location. Over the years, he planted pine and jacaranda trees along with rose bushes, geraniums, oleander, and yucca that grew into the beautiful oasis it is today.
“…what you need first and foremost here is shade,” Dialameh explained in 1989. “That’s why I planted trees like the jacaranda. In ten years, this place will be covered with their branches.”
His words were prophetic. Today Amir’s Garden is nearly five-acres of shady rest stop for Griffith Park’s hikers and equestrians.
Dialameh first came to appreciate nature as a child during hiking trips in the Alborz Mountains of his native Iran. As his love of hiking and nature developed, so did his affinity for the United States of America.
“I was intrigued by the volunteerism that built this country… people doing things instead of relying on the government.” In 1963 while visiting his brother in Pittsburgh, Dialameh made the ultimate decision to immigrate and moved to the Los Angeles area.
Getting There
The hike to Amir’s Garden actually begins near one of Griffith Park’s larger picnic areas, Mineral Well Picnic Area. Find the dirt service road heading west from the intersection of Griffith Park Drive and Mineral Wells Road.
Walk straight through an immediate junction and follow the dirt road on a southwestern climb to Amir’s Garden. After a horseshoe bend in the road, and a quarter mile from the start, you will pass a water tower that is accompanied by broad views stretching beyond Griffith Park toward Glendale, the Verdugo Mountains, and San Gabriel Mountains.
After less than half a mile, the trail arrives at Amir’s Garden where you’ll discover a pocket of tall sycamores arcing over a mountainside of verdant plants including succulents like ice plant and jade. There are a few picnic tables at the entrance of Amir’s Garden and others hidden throughout.
To get to the trailhead: Take the 5 Freeway to the Los Feliz Boulevard exit. Drive west on Los Feliz Boulevard to the first light and turn north on Crystal Springs Road. After 1.5 miles, turn left on Griffith Park Drive and drive 1.2 miles to the intersection with Mineral Wells Road. Turn left onto Mineral Wells Road and park immediately in the spaces along the road. The trail to Amir’s Garden heads west from the intersection of Mineral Wells Road and Griffith Park Drive.
Trailhead address: Mineral Wells Road & Griffith Park Drive, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA 90027
