Sepulveda Pass

Getty View Trail

Here’s how to see the Getty Center without reservations, without cost, and without crowds: Take a hike on the new Getty View Trail.

While you won’t see any art en route, you will get an inspiring view of the world’s most expensive art facility from a ridgetop above Sepulveda Pass. You’ll also get a bird’s eye views of two of the world’s priciest neighborhoods—Bel-Air and Brentwood, as well as of the freeway that separates them.

In 1769, Captain Gaspar de Portola, commander of the first Spanish land exploration of California, marched through Sepulveda Pass into the San Fernando Valley. Today, the San Diego Freeway extends through the pass, which connects the Los Angeles Basin and the city’s westside with the southern San Fernando Valley.

The view has changed immeasurably since the 1840s when Francisco Sepulveda, rode through this gap in the Santa Monica Mountains and over his 30,000 acre Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica.

The path is surely one of the most freeway-convenient in the Southland. Instead of idling along in heavy traffic, frustrated commuters could exit on Sepulveda and take a hike. From the top of the trail, hikers can gather their own traffic reports; the view down of the San Diego Freeway rivals that of what a helicopter news crew can see. When that San Diego Freeway sig-alert ends, you can return to civilization, such as it is.

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Getty View Trail switchbacks up the brushy slopes east of Sepulveda Pass to meet dirt East Sepulveda Fire Road. No doubt such fire roads are crucial to fire-fighting efforts in the steep terrain surrounding Bel-Air’s pricey real estate. On November 6, 1961, a wind-driven wildfire destroyed some $24 million worth (an extraordinary figure for this era) of homes.

Getty View Trail delivers on the promise of its name from the southern end of the fire road. Other views from the ridge-hugging fire road include the Santa Monica Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, the Wilshire corridor and the Pacific Ocean.

Views the trail delivers, peace it does not. Given the path’s proximity to the freeway, tranquility would be too much to ask of this trail, so don’t. At times, the trailside traffic noise is more intense than anything you experience as a motorist in the lanes below.

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The hike: The path ascends past a few handsome sycamores (the only shade en route) and climbs northeast above Sepulveda. The powerful din of the freeway seems to vibrate the very landscape. Switchback by switchback, more and more of Sepulveda Pass is revealed.

Getty View Trail tops out on a ridgeline where it meets the wide, dirt East Sepulveda Fire Road. For a fine view, angle north on a trail that leads a bit above the fire road to a lone oak. If you continue north on this trail it will drop back down to the fire road.

A ten-minute walk north on the fire road leads to its end at Bel-Air Crest, a gated community located on the opposite side of the freeway from Mountaingate Contry Club. Here signs warn of “Danger Rattlesnakes” and “No Trespassing.” A security card-key system allows estate owners through a gate onto the fire road and prevents hikers from wandering in.

If you head south on the fire road from its junction with Getty View Trail, you’ll soon get grand views to the west of Getty Center, and a surprising view to the east-an undeveloped canyon! Did Sepulveda Canyon once resemble this nearly pristine canyon? East Sepulveda Fire Road ends at Casiano Road on the far west side of Bel-Air.

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