Bronson Canyon

Where it sits. Bronson Canyon is a small notch in the southwestern corner of Griffith Park, reached from the north end of Canyon Drive, which is the uphill continuation of Bronson Avenue above Franklin. It is a short, V-shaped bowl of decomposed granite and chaparral, perhaps ten minutes' walk end to end, with the Hollywood Sign visible on the ridge to the west from parts of the road. Los Feliz and Hollywood begin immediately below it. Nothing about the setting suggests the desert wilderness that has been filmed here for more than a century.

The story behind it. In 1903 the Union Rock Company opened a quarry in what was then called Brush Canyon, cutting crushed rock for the streets and kerbs of a rapidly expanding Los Angeles and hauling it out on an electric rail spur, the Brush Canyon Line. Quarrying stopped in the late 1920s, and the company left behind the thing that made the place famous: raw excavated rock faces and a short tunnel driven through a rib of the hillside. The canyon took its popular name from Bronson Avenue below. The same street sign is generally credited with supplying the stage name of the actor born Charles Buchinsky, who became Charles Bronson in 1954.

What the caves actually are. They are not caves. The formation is a single short tunnel with three openings, cut by quarrymen, and it goes clean through the rock — stand at the main mouth and the daylight at the far end is plainly visible. This is why directors almost invariably frame the entrance at an oblique angle: shot straight on, the illusion of depth collapses immediately. The same trick of framing turns a compact bowl into an apparently limitless canyon country. Understanding the geometry before arriving prevents the mild disappointment that catches out visitors expecting a cavern.

On screen. The tunnel mouth is the entrance to the Batcave in the Batman television series of 1966 to 1968 and in Batman: The Movie (1966) — the shot of the Batmobile bursting out through the opening was taken here, and it remains the single most recognisable use of the location. Before that, the canyon carried serials and westerns almost continuously: Flash Gordon (1936), Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Atom Man vs. Superman (1949). It supplied the cave in Robot Monster (1953), the hillside hiding place in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and appears in The Searchers (1956) and Ride the High Country (1962). Later credits include Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) and a long tail of low-budget science fiction that used the rock faces as alien terrain. Something over a hundred features have used the canyon, quite apart from television. In practically every one of them, the same fifty metres of quarry face is doing the work.

What you actually see today. Park at the paved lot at the end of Canyon Drive, where there is no fee, and walk the fire road that climbs gently to the right. The tunnel is roughly 0.4 miles (650 m) from the lot, about ten minutes at an easy pace, and the ground is graded dirt rather than trail — passable with a sturdy pushchair, uncomfortable for a wheelchair. The tunnel itself is short, unlit, dry, and open at both ends; walking through takes under a minute. Above the caves, the quarry benches make a natural viewpoint back down the canyon. The same trailhead is the start of the Brush Canyon Trail, one of the standard routes to the Hollywood Sign, which climbs about three miles to the summit ridge on Mount Lee, and many visitors combine the two.

Getting there and timing. Canyon Drive is narrow, residential at its lower end, and posted with parking restrictions that are enforced; arriving before 09:00 at weekends is the difference between the lot and a long walk. The park is open from dawn to dusk and the gate closes punctually. Filming permits close the canyon regularly, usually on weekdays, and there is no advance notice on site, so a midweek trip carries some risk of finding the road blocked by trucks — which is, in its way, an authentic experience of the location. Bring water: the canyon holds heat, there is no shade on the fire road, and there are no facilities beyond a portable toilet at the lot. Rattlesnakes are present in warm months, and coyotes are common and unbothered at dusk.