Two things happened this year that ridge residents on Mulholland and Woodrow Wilson have already felt, even if nobody has connected them out loud. The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority put a fee back on the Wilacre Park trailhead lot at the bottom of Fryman Road. And TreePeople, one intersection to the west of Coldwater and Mulholland, quietly rebuilt a full summer calendar around its amphitheatre and its trailhead.
Read together, those two changes flip the geometry of the backyard. The Betty B. Dearing loop that most Angelenos climb up from Studio City now makes more sense walked the other way, starting where you already live.
The Ridge's Actual Trailhead Is at 12601 Mulholland
TreePeople sits on 45 acres at 12601 Mulholland Drive, on the east side of the Coldwater intersection. Coldwater Canyon Park provides 45 acres of natural environment and is part of a 900-acre cross-mountain park that also includes Wilacre, Fryman Canyon, and Franklin Canyon parks. The campus is owned by the City of Los Angeles' Department of Recreation and Parks and maintained and operated by TreePeople, who almost exclusively rely on public donations for its upkeep.
For a ridge homeowner, that means the fire road you can see from your car every morning is not a separate hike from Fryman. It is the same trail system, entered from the top. The 122-acre Fryman Canyon Park is accessed from the Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook on the north side of Mulholland Drive, and the Betty B. Dearing Cross Mountain Trail traverses the park and connects to Wilacre Park, Franklin Canyon, and Coldwater Canyon Park. Three of those four entrances are within a short drive of the ridge; the fourth is the one that just changed.
What Changed at the Bottom of the Hill
The Wilacre lot at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Fryman Road has been the default entry for a decade. It is closer to Studio City than to the ridge, and it is the one every trail app points to. The Wilacre Park trailhead lot, the lower Fryman Canyon entrance off Laurel Canyon Boulevard, charges for parking again in 2026 after roughly a decade of free parking that began in 2014; Los Angeles County ended the subsidy that had kept the lot free, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority brought the fee back at about seven dollars for two hours.
A few practical notes worth having in mind before Saturday morning:
- The Wilacre lot sits at 3431 Fryman Road, just off Laurel Canyon Boulevard.
- The fee applies to the lot itself, not to the trail.
- Los Angeles County ended the subsidy that had kept the Wilacre lot free since 2014, and with that county money gone after budget cuts, MRCA reinstated the fee to cover maintenance of the lot and trails.
- Day-use pricing can change, so the number on the pay station is the number that matters.
None of this shuts the ridge out of the trail. It reframes which door is the natural one to use.
The Loop, Walked Down Instead of Up
Walked up from Wilacre, the Dearing loop is a workout with a payoff at the top. Walked down from TreePeople, it is a shaded morning stroll into a canyon and then a decision about how far to go before turning back. Same trail, different feel, and for a ridge household the second version is the one with no line at the gate.
Access from the TreePeople side is straightforward. The Parking Grove is at Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Mulholland Drive, just a few minutes above Studio City; look for the green TreePeople sign at the entrance, opposite the stoplight, on the east side of the intersection. The park itself is open to the public from 6am to 8pm unless otherwise specified.
Here is how the two entries actually compare from the ridge:
| Consideration | Wilacre Park (bottom) | TreePeople Parking Grove (top) |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 3431 Fryman Road | 12601 Mulholland Drive |
| 2026 parking | Paid, roughly $7 for two hours | Free, limited capacity |
| Direction of loop | Climb, then descend | Descend, then climb back |
| Amenities | Restrooms, drinking fountains | Restrooms, nursery, conference center |
| Best for | Morning workout starting in the Valley | An early walk from home before the day begins |
Neither is wrong. They are just different summers.
The Amphitheatre Is the Summer Anchor
The reason the TreePeople side matters more this year than last is not really the parking fee. It is the calendar. The S. Mark Taper Foundation Amphitheatre was built in 1997 with the support of many generous donors including Steve Martin, Bonnie Raitt, Ron Howard, and Johnny Carson. It has always been there. What has grown around it is a season of Friday and Saturday evenings that a ridge household can actually plan a week around, with a walk-home option most venues in this city cannot offer.
The season leans on three formats. The amphitheatre hosts music and screenings. The trail hosts moonlight hikes. And the conference center hosts talks and exhibitions.
Check-in starts at 6:30 pm, music starts at 7 pm, and the hike starts at 8 pm.
That rhythm, taken from TreePeople's own guided-activities page, is the shape of a summer Saturday if you live within walking distance. The music sets the light. The hike takes the last of it.
Moonlight Hikes and First-Sunday Family Tours
Two programs do most of the work of turning the campus into a neighborhood auditorium.
Moonlight Hikes are the older tradition. Eco-Educators lead three different hikes, so all ages and experience levels are welcome; guests come early to experience an outdoor musical performance, with check-in at 6:30 pm, music at 7 pm, and the hike at 8 pm. Moonlight Hikes are open to the public at $20 per person. TreePeople strongly recommends that guests do not bring a pet to a Moonlight Hike, because wildlife is active in the evening hours and hikers may come across a coyote or snake.
Family Tours run on a quieter schedule. The 1.5-hour guided walk includes plant identification, a live demonstration at the Watershed Garden of how rainwater flows through the urban environment, and a seedling to plant at home. The tours are geared toward families with elementary-aged children or youth groups at $10 per person, with children under 3 free, and are available the first Sunday of every month, weather permitting.
The reason to flag both is timing. The Moonlight Hike is a nighttime event with music, and it requires early registration; the Family Tour is a monthly, low-key morning that does not. If you are hosting out-of-town guests on a first Sunday, the tour is a genuinely local answer to "what do you actually do up here."
One July Evening to Put On the Calendar
The single event this summer that is worth pulling out of the general run of programming is a conference-center date, not an amphitheatre date. On Saturday, July 18, 2026 at 3 pm in the TreePeople Schuman Family Foundation Conference Center, Wildfire Resilience: A Transcontinental Conversation, initiated by 2026 Goldman Environmental Award winner Dr. Iroro Tanshi, explores the shared challenges of wildfires and the collective efforts to protect wildlife and livelihoods across continents. The exhibit, featuring photographers Aaron Colussi and Etinosa Yvonne, highlights connections between communities in Nigeria and the American West, and guests are invited to attend an intimate dialogue with Dr. Tanshi at 3:30 PM.
For a ridge audience, an afternoon on wildfire resilience is not abstract. It sits half a mile from the fire road you can see from your front window. That is the kind of programming that only reads this well when you already live where the conversation is set.
A Note on Walking Distance
Nothing about the TreePeople campus assumes you are driving up from somewhere else. The park is maintained and operated by TreePeople, who almost exclusively rely on public donations for its upkeep. The Parking Grove is deliberately small. On event nights, the natural move for a ridge household is to walk in from Coldwater or from a side street off Mulholland, which is the exact scale of foot traffic the campus was built for.
If you are new to this stretch of Mulholland or Woodrow Wilson and have not yet worked out what a summer weekend up here actually looks like, the answer this year is smaller and closer than the drive-time apps make it seem. The Betty B. Dearing Trail starts across the street. The amphitheatre is a five-minute walk from the parking lot. The Fryman fee is somebody else's problem.
Interested in a private, market-savvy read on the ridge, the canyon, or the pocket just below Mulholland? Neal Baddin works these micro-markets from the Coldwell Banker Global Luxury office and welcomes a discreet conversation.
