I guess my equine-obsessed daughter isn’t the only one jumping at the chance to clip-clop around Los Angeles on the back of a horse. Tourists from around the world are trading in their rental cars and bus tour passes for the chance to hop on muscular mares for sunset rides in the hills above The City of Angels.
Say good-bye to traffic jams and smoggy side streets and hello to open trails and fresh air. In historic Griffith Park, home of the world-famous Hollywood sign that overlooks the city, you can hop on a horse for a sunset ride above the picturesque San Fernando Valley and have dinner at a Mexican restaurant with your horse hitched to a nearby post.
Griffith Park Horse Rentals gives tourists a chance to view L.A. from a unique vantage point. The guided horseback tour begins with a 90-minute ride up one of the hills in Griffith Park past hiking trails and Griffith Observatory, which houses science exhibits and a planetarium. Tour guides share that the observatory has been the setting for numerous movies, including the James Dean classic “Rebel Without a Cause.” The tour then proceeds to the top of the hill where riders can view the sunset over the valley. After sunset the tour moves along another trail to Viva Fresh Mexican Restaurant, where you can tie your horse up at a hitching post and enjoy dinner. Then it’s a 20-minute ride on flat ground back to the stables.
The Griffith Park stable also offers daily horse rentals by the hour, but the sunset dinner tour is by far the most popular choice among domestic and international tourists looking for a one-of-a-kind experience.
Cost for the dinner ride depends on the type of horse you choose to saddle up on. The most popular are two brown and white Belgian draft horses, brothers Rocky and Rollin. The powerful, even-tempered equines are crowd favorites. However, you will have to pay $95 to ride them instead of the standard $65 for other breeds.
Tourists are not the only ones signing up for the horseback tours. According to the stable’s owner, many local parents give the rides to their kids as birthday presents while others use the tour as the venue to propose marriage.
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