LA's Top Parks, Ranked

Parks and recreational facilities are essential to ensuring a community's quality of life. Almost all U.S. adults (90 percent) agree that parks and recreation is an important service provided by their local government, according to a 2022 report from the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). Survey respondents placed nearly the same level of importance on parks and recreation as they did on virtually every other major service delivered by their local governments, like fire protection, roads/transportation, water/utilities, police protection, and more. Almost nine in 10 people agree that it is important to fund local park and recreation agencies to ensure every member of the community has equitable access to amenities, infrastructure and programming.

While park poor when compared to most other metropolitan areas, the Los Angeles region is home to numerous high quality parks. In this article, Michael Juliano of TimeOut highlights the following green spaces that are worth visiting:

For urban wilderness:

• Griffith Park 
• Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area
• Los Angeles State Historic Park
• El Dorado Nature Center and Regional Park

For art aficionados:

• Barnsdall Art Park and Hollyhock House
• Tongva Park

For reclaimed green space:

• Echo Park Lake
• Grand Park

For waterfront views:

• Palisades Park
• Korean Bell of Friendship (and Point Fermin Park)

For Valley dwellers:

• Lake Balboa
• Brookside Park

For museum lovers:

• Exposition Park
• Hancock Park (La Brea Tar Pits)
• Will Rogers State Historic Park

For four-legged friends:

• Lake Hollywood Park
• Silver Lake Reservoir
• Sepulveda Basin Off-Leash Dog Park

For quiet neighborhood retreats:

• Lacy Park
• Garfield Park
• Vista Hermosa Natural Park

For kid-friendly afternoons:

• Roxbury Community Center and Memorial Park
• Polliwog Park
• Coldwater Canyon Park

For hidden-in-plain-sight history:

• Elysian Park
• MacArthur Park

For more information about any of the above parks, please read the source article. For information about additional parks in Los Angeles, readers may visit the following websites:

• City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks
• County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation