The park includes popular attractions such as the Los Angeles Zoo, the Autry Museum of the American West, the Griffith Observatory, and the Hollywood Sign.

[7][8] It came with instructions: "Public parks are a safety valve of great cities...and should be accessible and attractive, where neither race, creed nor color should be excluded.

[11] In 1912, Griffith designated 100 acres (40 ha) of the park, at its northeast corner along the Los Angeles River, to be used to "do something to further aviation".

Aviation pioneers such as Glenn L. Martin and Silas Christofferson used it; afterwards the aerodrome was passed to the National Guard Air Service.

[12] The National Guard squadron moved to Van Nuys, and the aerodrome was demolished, though the rotating beacon and its tower remained for many years.

In December, 1944 the Sherman Company donated 444 acres (180 ha) of Hollywoodland open space to Griffith Park.

This large, passive, eco-sensitive property borders the Lake Hollywood reservoir (west), the former Hollywoodland sign (north), and Bronson Canyon (east) where it connects into the original Griffith donation.

[16] The Griffith Park Detention Camp opened almost immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, taking in 35 Japanese immigrants suspected of fifth column activity because they lived and worked near military installations.

These men, mostly fishermen from nearby Terminal Island, were transferred to an Immigration and Naturalization Service detention station after a brief stay, but Issei internees arrested in the days and weeks following the outbreak of the war arrived soon after to take their place.

[17] On July 14, 1942, the detention camp became a POW Processing Center for German, Italian and Japanese prisoners-of-war, operating until August 3, 1943, when the prisoners were transferred elsewhere.

The camp was changed to the Army Western Corps Photographic Center and Camouflage Experimental Laboratory until the end of the war.

[17] On 17 March 1968, in Los Angeles, to protest entrapment and harassment by the Los Angeles Police Department, two drag queens known as "The Princess" and "The Duchess" held a St. Patrick's Day party at Griffith Park, a popular cruising spot and a frequent target of police activity.

[22] On May 8, 2007, a major wildfire burned more than 817 acres (331 ha), destroying the bird sanctuary, Dante's View, and Captain's Roost, and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people.

In 2014, two baseball fields were proposed on the east side of Griffith Park that would remove 44 trees and replace four acres (1.6 ha) of picnic area, the largest picnic area in the park that is often used for large family gatherings, cultural fairs and festivals, reunions, and other special occasions.

The plan may be altered to spare a sycamore that has been designated by the city as a "heritage tree", a living artifact of Los Angeles history.

[45] Mount Lee's hiking trails and fire roads are part of Griffith Park; as such it's easy to get lost and be redirected.

Another mountain lion was sighted several times in Griffith Park in 2004 and rangers found evidence (including deer remains) to support its presence there.

"[56] The newly created habitat of a Miyawaki forest near the Bette Davis Picnic Area has attracted Western toads from the Los Angeles River.

[59] With its wide variety of scenes and close proximity to Hollywood and Burbank, various locations in the park have been used extensively in movies and television shows.