Echo Park Lake

In a recent article about cheap dates in LA, I read about the paddle boats at Echo Park Lake. I hadn’t been paddle boating in about 18 years, but I have extremely fond memories of the last time I went, at the Binnenalster in Hamburg, Germany with a friend. Therefore, upon learning of the paddle boats here, I had to check it out.

Echo Park is a small neighborhood just northwest of downtown LA (side note: the old houses there are amazing). The lake is quite literally just off Highway 101. We found free parking easily on the street (as always, pay attention to the signs; this is LA after all) but I could see how it wouldn’t so easily be found during certain times of the day/week/year.

To get to the paddle boat dock, you have to go through the little on-site cafe. The boat rental PER PERSON is $10 for adults/$5 for children for up to an hour (cash only). Life jackets are included. Now, while I would concur that $10 per person could typically be considered cheap entertainment, it only took us about half an hour or so to paddle around the lake, so it’s up to you to decide whether $10 for a half hour constitutes a “cheap” date. To me, it was worth it.

The lake, while small, is pretty, with lots of flowers, wildlife, and views of both the neighborhood & part of the city. 

About to board our boat.

Lots of lily pads & flowers, city view in background.

Another city view. Unfortunately I accidentally
deleted my best city view after we'd already
left the park.

You're not allowed to get too close to the edges of the lake, so
this was the best picture I could get of the flowers. There
were light pinks, hot pinks, white, and purple.

The fountain.

There were a lot of ducks, including mallards. We also saw
turtles and tons of dragonflies of different colors.

We both thought the well-defined badonkadonk
on this statue was funny.

So SoCal.

The husband called this area "Jurassic Park."

I had a lot of fun. We laughed a lot, and it was great exercise to boot. While I do recommend this, I would probably only do so to locals. If you’re visiting from out of town, there are plenty of other things to occupy your time in LA. If you live here, and you’re looking for something different and entertaining to do, you should give it a shot.