Art of Urban Trekking on New 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, which opened in June.

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 ridge above Sepulveda Pass. You’ll also get a bird’s-eye view of two of the world’s priciest neighborhoods, Bel-Air and Brentwood.

In 1769, Capt. 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 pass, along with a long boulevard (the longest road in Los Angeles County), a flood control basin and many other features, was named for the Sepulvedas, major 19th century Southern California landowners.

The new 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 onto the San Diego Freeway rivals that of a helicopter news crew. The new path was constructed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority with funding by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Caltrans funded the spiffy trail head.

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 firefighting efforts in the steep terrain surrounding Bel-Air’s pricey real estate. On Nov. 6, 1961, a wind-driven wildfire destroyed about $24 million worth of homes, an extraordinary figure for that time.

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, the San Gabriel Mountains, the Wilshire corridor and the Pacific Ocean.

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

Directions to trail head: From the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) take the Getty Center exit and follow the signs directing you down Sepulveda Boulevard. Just as Sepulveda crosses under the San Diego Freeway, look left for the signed Getty Center Trail and a small parking area. The landscaped trail head includes a toilet and a couple of picnic tables.

The hike: The path ascends past a few handsome sycamores (the only shade en route) and climbs northeast above Sepulveda. 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 10-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 Country Club. Here signs warn: “Danger Rattlesnakes” and “No Trespassing.”

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 place? East Sepulveda Fire Road ends at Casiano Road on the west side of Bel-Air.

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Getty View Trail

WHERE: Eastern Santa Monica Mountains, by Bel-Air.

DISTANCE: From Sepulveda Boulevard to East Sepulveda Fire Road is 2.5 miles round trip with 500-foot elevation gain; to Casiano Road is 3.5 miles round trip.

TERRAIN: Steep, chaparral-covered eastern slope of Sepulveda Pass.

HIGHLIGHTS: Grand views of the Getty Art Center, the mountains and metropolis.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Moderate.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority/Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy; tel. (310) 858-7272.