A man circles the small paved lot at the Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook on Mulholland Drive for the third time on a Saturday morning, gives up, and drives back down the hill to try the other entrance off Fryman Road. He is not new to the neighborhood. He has hiked this canyon for years and still treats the two trailheads like separate destinations, because most days, that is exactly how they function.
The confusion is not his fault. The canyon most people call Fryman Canyon is actually stitched together from three different names layered over the same ridge, and the two main entrances a mile apart produce genuinely different hikes depending on which one you happen to park at.
Three names, one canyon
The 122-acre parcel that anchors this whole system is officially Fryman Canyon Park, reached from the Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook on the north side of Mulholland Drive, according to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. The trail that runs through it carries its own separate name on the signage: the Betty B. Dearing Cross Mountain Trail. Drop down to the base of the mountain and the same connected trail system now sits inside a different park boundary entirely, Wilacre Park, accessed from Fryman Road off Laurel Canyon Boulevard.
So a resident giving directions to a first-time visitor has to pick which of three names to use, and any of them will get you to a real place, just not necessarily the same starting point. The MRCA's own description of the trail notes that it traverses Fryman Canyon Park and connects to Wilacre Park, Franklin Canyon, and Coldwater Canyon Park, which is the more honest way to think about it: one trail system, four park names, and two commonly used front doors.
Two front doors, two different hikes
The upper entrance at the Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook is a small paved lot that holds roughly 20 cars, with street parking along Mulholland picking up the overflow on busy weekends. The lower entrance off Fryman Road is a larger lot, big enough for around 50 cars, with restrooms on site, and it starts you on a paved stretch that runs for about the first 0.3 miles before giving way to dirt.
| Trailhead | Access point | Approx. capacity | Starting terrain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook | North side of Mulholland Drive | ~20 cars, plus street parking | Dirt fire road, valley views from the start |
| Fryman Road / Laurel Canyon | Fryman Road, 0.7 miles south of Ventura Blvd | ~50 cars, restrooms | Paved for 0.3 miles, then dirt, well shaded |
The parking situation at the lower lot has also genuinely changed over time, and it is worth knowing before you show up expecting yesterday's arrangement. A 2014 agreement between the MRCA and Los Angeles County removed the parking fee at this trailhead for years. More recent visitor reports from 2026 describe paying again, with the amount cited anywhere from $3 to $7 depending on who is reporting it and which exact lot they used. Bring a card or cash and check the kiosk rather than assuming it is still the free lot it was a decade ago.
The connector almost nobody walks
The trail extends well beyond the loop most visitors have in mind. Most people who park at Fryman Road hike a loop of about 2.7 miles, gain roughly 452 feet, and are back at their car in an hour to ninety minutes. That is the version most residents mean when they say they hiked Fryman Canyon.
But the Betty B. Dearing Trail, in full, runs 8.2 miles with 1,519 feet of elevation gain, connecting all the way through to Franklin Canyon. The piece that bridges the short loop to the long traverse is the section that climbs past TreePeople's Center for Community Forestry at Coldwater Canyon Park, where a side trail called the U-Vanu Trail splits off and parallels the main Dearing Trail for about a mile before rejoining it, offering slightly higher views and a break from the weekend crowd on the main fire road. Almost every trailhead lot fills up on a clear Saturday, and almost none of that traffic continues past the TreePeople center toward Franklin Canyon. The short loop absorbs the crowd. The connector stays quiet because most hikers do not know it exists, or assume it belongs to a different, longer trip they have not planned for.
What changes hike to hike
The trail is shared with equestrians and, on the main Dearing Trail itself, closed to mountain bikes, a restriction the MRCA states directly on its own park page. Dogs are welcome on leash and under control, which matters more here than it might elsewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains, since horses use the same narrow sections.
Wildlife sightings are part of the current texture, not just historical color. A hiker reported a rattlesnake crossing the trail just beyond the top of the initial incline from the TreePeople center on April 29, 2026. Dog owners who use the park regularly mention coyotes often enough that keeping pets leashed and visible reads as standard practice rather than caution. Ticks and mites show up in enough visitor accounts that a quick check after the hike, especially in the shadier, more wooded stretches near the rainforest-like pocket of the Dearing Trail, is worth building into the routine.
The terrain itself splits cleanly by direction. Heading up from Fryman Road, the first half mile gains about 270 feet before the trail levels into a longer, gradual climb. The upper section past TreePeople moves through denser tree cover and natural springs, a noticeably different feel from the more open, chaparral-covered lower loop.
Where the loop actually lets out
Finish the short loop from the Fryman Road side and the trail deposits you back at your car by way of Iredell Lane, a residential street that connects back to the trailhead parking area. From there, Ventura Boulevard sits a short drive away, and the Sunday farmers market on Ventura Place has long been the informal capstone to a morning on the trail.
That same stretch of Ventura Place picked up a second, after-dark identity this year. Studio City closed the block to traffic for the first annual Ventura Place Night Market, drawing more than 20 local artisans and businesses into the same footprint the Sunday market already occupies. It is a small addition, but it means the block now runs on two separate calendars, one civic and daylight, one after dark, both anchored to the same short stretch of pavement most hikers already walk past on their way back to the car.
A trail that rewards knowing the whole map
None of this changes what makes the canyon worth returning to. It changes how much of it most people are actually using. The short loop from Fryman Road is a genuinely good hour of exercise, dog-friendly, well within reach of anyone in the neighborhood, and it will always be the busier option because it is the one most visible from the street. The longer traverse through TreePeople and toward Franklin Canyon asks more of a morning, but it uses trail that sits mostly empty even on the weekends when the lower lot is full.
The Fryman Road lot leads to the short loop, and the trail beyond the TreePeople center leads on toward Franklin Canyon.
For residents who value having a trail system like this minutes from home, and who are curious what that kind of proximity is worth on the market right now, Sandler + Hirsch Group can walk you through what canyon-adjacent addresses in Studio City are actually commanding this season.
