I do most of my weekday training hikes and runs in Griffith Park. I hit most of the peaks here and there and on occasion have done most. I however have never done them all in one day. With the three day weekender coming around and a half day of work on Friday. I decided to hit all the peaks in one swoop and to try to make it more interesting I set up some rules. Here they are:
1. The entire hike must be finished within three hours.
2. There can not be an interval from start of hike to last peak where more then 15 minutes elapse.
3.There can be no stoppage of more then 30 seconds.
The peaks on the crest in order are Beacon Hill, Glendale, Dante's View(bump below the garden), Hollywood, Baby Bell(water catch basin on top), Bell, Chapel, Lee, Cahuenga, and finally Burbank. On the way back it is your option to find the fastest way back to your car. I noticed that I could still manage the 15 minute rule eliminating Dante's and Baby Bell from the equation with some jogging.
The tough sections to hit the 15 minute rule are getting up to Beacon, Beacon to Glendale, and Chapel to Lee. I made it to Burbank in 1:40 and knew that I had it made. The nice thing about this challenge is that it can all be hiked with a little jog here or there and still finish within the guidelines. I finished between 2:35 and 2:40 car-to-car. This can easily become a sub 2:30 and a strong runner could probably come close to touching a 2:00 time but I think that an in shape hiker can look at the 3 hour limit and feel like they accomplished something.
Griffith Park Peak Hiking Challenge
Interesting! I do this same hike from time to time but just at a more leisurely pace. Think it takes me about four hours or so, never timed it. I usually like to park at the pony rides and take the steep ridge use trail up to Beacon, then the rest of the route as you describe it. I usually skip the actual peak to Lee though, just because of the crowds mostly. In fact I would rather skip the whole paved part up Lee if that was even possible.