The Best Free View of L.A. Isn't at Griffith Observatory

Free lookouts ranked by posted hours, posted parking prices and how much of the Los Angeles Basin each one says it shows.

The best free view of Los Angeles isn't at Griffith Observatory. It's on a 420-foot hill off Jefferson Boulevard in Culver City, and parking there costs $6 for the whole day.

The Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook beats Griffith on parking and on how much city it promises. It loses only on hours. Griffith stays open later than anything else on this list, and I still put it second. That's my hot take, and here's the case for it.

1. Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

California State Parks posts everything a driver needs to know. The park opens at 8 a.m. every day and closes at sunset. The lot at the top charges $2 an hour or $6 a day: you pay at a machine and leave the receipt on your dashboard. The entrance is at 6300 Hetzler Road.

Then there's the view. State Parks says the peak, southwest of downtown, takes in the entire Los Angeles Basin, the Pacific and the mountains around them. Nobody else on this list puts the ocean in writing. There's also a way up on foot: a steep one-mile trail from the Jefferson entrance that zigzags around a staircase running straight up the hill.

The hill wasn't always for looking. State Parks says it was once drilled and exploited land, and the visitor center (Wednesday through Sunday, 9 to 5) tells that story. Today the agency calls it a symbol of hope, which is a lot to ask of a parking lot.

The catch is the clock. On Tuesday, Oct. 27, Griffith Observatory's own count put sunset at 6:06 p.m., and it comes an hour earlier once clocks fall back Sunday. At Baldwin Hills, that's closing time.

2. Griffith Observatory

Griffith keeps the longest hours here. Its visitor page says the grounds and roads follow Griffith Park's schedule, 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day. The building is open noon to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 to 10 on weekends, and it's closed Mondays. The observatory promises views of the city and the Hollywood Sign. Walking in costs nothing, and neither does a stroll outside or a turn at one of the telescopes set out for visitors.

Parking is where it slips. The observatory's directions page lists the hours when parking near the building costs money, but not the price. The pay stations take only credit cards and don't give refunds. The observatory also warns that spaces are limited and that roads are likely to close when traffic backs up.

There are two ways around it. Parking near the Greek Theatre is free if you can walk up to a mile uphill, but it's off-limits after 1 p.m. on concert nights. The DASH Observatory/Los Feliz bus runs from the Vermont/Sunset Metro station for 50 cents, or 35 cents with a TAP card.

The observatory also says the building is busiest at sunset, the same hour Baldwin Hills closes its gates.

3. Los Angeles City Hall observation deck

The 27th-floor deck at City Hall is free. We Like L.A. described the views as 360 degrees when it visited in 2015. Getting up there takes a valid ID, a metal detector, two elevators and a flight of stairs.

Its hours are the shakiest on this list: weekdays only, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to that same 2015 post. We Like L.A. also called parking "the toughest (and costliest) thing" about the trip, with $4-an-hour meters nearby and lots that topped out at $9 a day. Those are 2015 prices.

So Baldwin Hills wins: $6 buys the day there. Just leave before the sun does.

Source: State of California, retrieved October 27, 2026. Other sources: griffithobservatory.org, griffithobservatory.org (2), welikela.com.