Balboa Park

Doesn't Recommend

gio77777

Joined 6 years ago

Dangerous for cyclin. Have to agree with another reviewer that this park is dangerous for cycling. Tere are too many pedestrians on the bike paths. People don't read the signs or ignore them.

My best friend had a bad accident there today trying to avoid hitting a young girl. She broke and rib and cut her face badly. Luckily she was wearing a helmet.

The father of the girl did not speak English and yelled at her when she berated them for being a group of three walking side-by-side thus impeding the way for bicycles. They guy did not understand her, and was very hostile.

In short, it's hopeless.

Nice if you want to have a picnic or use the walking trails.

Recommends

daddylawbucks

Joined 4 years ago

Great park. There were hundreds of people biking and skating on the paths parallel to Burbank each of the three times I was there this month. Golfers were ignoring the coyotes that were ignoring them. A path roughly 3 miles long around the golf court has exercise areas, then follows the LA River and turns down Balboa. West of Balboa there are soccer fields, east of Woodley is a sewage plant with a full on Japanese garden

( no %^*@ ) and more exercise areas. Watering is done with recycled water.

Great place to people watch too.

Doesn't Recommend

MrT65

Joined 5 years ago

Very poor trail for cycling and inline skating. The park is nice and pleasant with all the ducks, the geese and all those things some parents like to show their kids. It is fairly easy to park except on weekends unless you are there early enough.

However, if you are a cyclist or an inline skater, it is pretty much an awful venue. I pretty much stopped going there as it had become a waste of time. The area that goes through the golf course parking lot is atrocious (for skaters it borders into the dangerous as besides paying attention to the deep holes and cracks you need to keep an eye on cars as well. The section along Burbank Blvd has many uneven concrete slabs that, for skaters in particular could cause a fall. In the east section (towards the headquarters) the trail has been half eaten away and is full of debris. And people toss weird things on it. I found a fork, once and a broken spoon.

In addition, they are always watering the golf course or the grass hence, sections of the trail is often wet big time. Once I found a section that was literally flooded. Hopefully, they will also be forced to do some better water management.

Be warned that the general public is quite clumsy and they cross the trail without paying attention to bicyclists or skaters, they alwasy walk side by side and use all the trail or walk/jog with music sets and never hear you if you yelled "passing on your left", Basically, most people who attend the park are illiterate when it comes to trail etiquette.

So, if you plan to use the park for picnicing, taking your kids to a green spot, or feed the ducks/geese/etc... you are fine. But, if you plan to use the park for some exercise, you must be really in bad shape to have some use from it. I think that the cyclists' average age must be 70 (younger than that and they are too fast to get any workout done) and skaters have pretty much disappeared since it has become a war zone to handle. Sorry.. I went there for two years, but enough is enough. Please fix it. It has potential.

Recommends

lloomis36

Joined 11 years ago

Duck duck goose goose. Balboa Park has it all: a lake, river, picnic areas, jogging trails, wildlife, and more. Watch the geese migrate or see the many varieties of ducks on the lake. There is also boating on the lake.

Recommends

Oscar

Joined 11 years ago

Great for Tennis. Balboa Park has a ton of tennis courts that can be reserved ahead of time, but if you don't make a reservation, chances are (unless it's a Saturday afternoon), you can get on a court. Courts are well maintained.