There's a small stretch of sandy beach dotted with lifeguard towers with water perfect for wading and a clear view of the mountains—and it's 18 miles inland from the ocean.
The Hansen Dam Aquatic Center in Lake View Terrace boasts a prodigious zero-entry pool in the center of its artificial beachfront. The Valley destination's public pool officially reopens for the season on Saturday, May 27.
Though the landlocked crowds flock to the aquatic center on warm summer weekends—in particular, opening and holiday weekends tend to be pretty busy—the chlorinated pool has enough space for 2,800 swimmers. For the big kids (or the young at heart), there's even a pair of water slides at one end.
Photograph: Courtesy Hansen Dam Aquatic Center
Photograph: Courtesy Hansen Dam Aquatic Center
Across from the pool, a nine-acre recreational lake caters to fishers and boaters all year round.
The pool is part of a much larger sporting, educational and wildlife complex located in a flood control basin. The neighboring Hansen Dam, a nearly two-mile long concrete wall easily spotted from the 210 freeway, was built following the Los Angeles Flood of 1938. As wintertime rainwater rushes down from the San Gabriel Mountains, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers structure slows down the flow as it enters the Tujunga Wash's concrete channel and, eventually, the L.A. River.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Flickr/marco antonio torres
A 1991 master plan for the area called for the construction of a massive 15-acre swimming lake—almost twice the size of the site's current recreational lake. Instead, the still-sizable 1.5-acre pool was built.
The Hansen Dam Aquatic Center is open daily from 11am to 6pm from May 27 through Labor Day on September 4. Afterwards, the swimming pool is only open on weekends from 11am to 6pm through September 24. Admission costs $3.50 for adults and $1 for children 17 and under or seniors 65 and up.
Want more? Sign up here to stay in the know.