Saturday morning, September 26, the bottom of the East Trail at Runyon Canyon looked less like a hike and more like a work site. More than 100 volunteers had gathered for California Climate Action Day, clearing debris, pulling invasive plants, spreading mulch, and replacing sandbags along stretches of hillside still marked by fire. The event was organized by Friends of Runyon Canyon, with members of Gay For Good and other groups pitching in. The work centered near the bottom of the East Trail, whose steep steps are sometimes dubbed the Death Stairs.
That cleanup is one piece of a busy year at the park. A permanent two-stall restroom opened at the Fuller Avenue entrance after roughly 20 months from approval to public use, including about six months between installation and opening. The West Trail reopened after more than a year of closure following the Sunset Fire. Volunteers have carried much of the hands-on restoration work in between.
Twenty Months for Two Stalls
The Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners approved the Runyon Canyon restroom project in December 2024, with a total budget of $961,125.48. That figure broke down into a few distinct pieces:
- Roughly $260,152 in park fees
- About $700,972 from deferred maintenance funds
- Costs covering site preparation, utility connections, permits, and accessibility work, in addition to the prefabricated building itself
The physical structure arrived by crane on February 12, 2026, closing the Fuller Avenue entrance for the day while it was installed. Reactions split along familiar lines. Parkgoer Nick Moschetto asked the question most people were already thinking: "Why did it cost the city a million dollars?" Frequent visitor Shira Scott Astrof was blunter, comparing the finished structure to "an extra-large dog house." Others, including longtime hiker Scott Weil, questioned whether the park needed a permanent facility at all, noting that Runyon had gone roughly 40 years without one.
The city's own timeline said the restroom would open within about 15 weeks of construction starting in January, putting completion around April or May. Summer came and went instead. By early August, the doors were still locked and fenced, even though hikers reported stalls, sinks, sidewalks, and lighting all appeared to be in place. Council District 4, the office representing the district, told local press the project was in "the final stages of the City's approval process" and that an opening would be announced once remaining steps were complete. The city's update did not specify which approval steps remained. The restroom opened to the public around August 21 and 22, 2026, about six months after it arrived.
The West Trail Reopens After the Sunset Fire
Over the same stretch, the park's West Trail was working through a longer closure. The Sunset Fire ignited in the area on January 8, 2025, burning roughly 43 acres and prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents across the Hollywood Hills. The West Trail, the park's more challenging and less-trafficked route, was closed for habitat rehabilitation for more than a year afterward. Several smaller arson fires were reported in the park over the following months, adding to the recovery work needed.
The trail reopened in February 2026, when the fencing was removed. Certain sections remained restricted, and the city's own recreation department page for the park has, as of this writing, continued to list the West Trail as closed, even though the fence came down in February. Hikers heading up should expect that some sections remain restricted.
Who Actually Takes Care of This Park
Friends of Runyon Canyon, the nonprofit behind Saturday's cleanup, was formed a little more than 12 years ago with a straightforward premise. As one of its organizers, identified in local coverage as Andres, put it: "the city needs help taking care of the park." The group has spent roughly a decade pushing specifically for a permanent restroom, long before the current one was ever approved, and continues to organize volunteer restoration work in and around fire-affected areas.
Gay For Good, one of the groups that joined the September cleanup, has an origin story tied directly to this canyon. Chapter lead Joe F. has said the organization began in 2008, when three people hiking Runyon found themselves talking about the political climate around marriage equality. "Let's show a community that gay people are good and do good," Joe recalled thinking. The group now operates in 23 cities and describes itself as the largest LGBTQ+ volunteer network in the country, with work that has since expanded well beyond parks, including water drops on Skid Row and food deliveries to unhoused residents.
Both groups took part in Saturday's cleanup.
What Changed at the Trailhead This Year
For anyone walking in through Fuller Avenue now, the practical differences are visible immediately. The restroom itself is a precision-block structure painted taupe with dark brown doors, built around two all-gender private stalls and two hand-washing stations, a layout modeled in part on a similar facility at Fryman Canyon. The chain-link fencing that surrounded the site for six months, including a stretch spray-painted with "Spencer Pratt for LA" messages, came down once the doors finally opened.
Portable toilets, which served the park for roughly four decades before this project, are still an option for anyone who prefers them. Runyon still draws an estimated 2 million visitors a year, a volume that was the primary justification city officials gave for the upgrade in the first place.
The West Trail is walkable again, fencing removed, though the city's park page still lists it as closed. New planting and continued work in and around fire-affected areas are underway, and Saturday's cleanup was the second large volunteer event Friends of Runyon Canyon held for California Climate Action Day.
If you're weighing a move to the Hollywood Hills and want a clearer read on how the neighborhoods around Runyon Canyon actually function day to day, not just how the listings describe them, Jennifer Purdue can walk you through it.
