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Earlier this year, we visited several off-leash dog beaches in Southern California, but as the temperatures began to drop, we shifted from beaches to pet-friendly parks. We don’t visit downtown Los Angeles very often, but Vista Hermosa Natural Park looked like it was worth a visit. The park had raving reviews so we headed down on an early Saturday morning with the pups.

Parking

The park has a total of three entrances and we entered through the North Gate. The North Gate only provides street parking, so if you are wary of parallel parking, the West and South Gates have a dedicated parking lot. Although the park has dedicated parking lots for visitors, it is very small so be prepared to find street parking during peak hours.

Vista Hermosa Natural Park in Downtown Los Angeles

Park Features

Vista Hermosa Natural Park is quite the hidden gem in DTLA. It’s an urban public park that includes walking trails, meadows, oak Savannah, picnic grounds, a nature themed playground, and a soccer field. We assumed that the park was fairly new since it was so well maintained, but we later found out that it opened in the summer of 2008.

View of Downtown Los Angeles From the park

Children’s Adventure Area

We saw several people picnicking in this area, but didn’t see any children at play. We were there pretty early, so we are guessing the kids come to play later in the day.

Grassy Meadows

The upper and lower fields are both areas where you can picnic or walk your dogs in the green grass which is beautifully maintained.

There are several picnic tables within the upper and lower fields and we found a picnic table with a fantastic backdrop of DTLA. The views of the city in the distance was such a stark contrast from the serene environment inside the park. This stunning backdrop is located just past the Vista Terrace which is where we entered through the North Gate.

Pets must be leashed, but we saw several people letting their dogs run around freely in the fields. However, this didn’t last very long when we spotted the ground’s keeper kindly asking the owners to leash their dogs.

Trail Loop

There is a trail that loops around the park where you can walk your dogs as well. It’s a very easy walk and surprisingly short. For some reason, we imagined it would be a much longer trail, but we were able to walk it within fifteen minutes. We saw several joggers on this trail, but for the most part it looks like visitors like to take a nice leisurely stroll as it’s very shaded and clean. We spotted the soccer field when we were on this trail and the parking lot to the West and South Gates.

As we were approaching the end of the loop, we saw a woman with some pastries and coffee that looked so yummy that we had to ask her where she got it from. She lived in the area and said it was just down the street in Echo Park Village from a place called Clark Street Bread. Of course, we jotted this down so that we could stop by on our way out of the park.

Shaded Trail inside Vista Hermosa Natural Park

Grotto/Amphitheater and Waterfall

We were looking forward to seeing the waterfall, but after speaking with the friendly ground’s keeper, we were were informed that all the fountains in the park were turned off. Unfortunately, visitors were abusing the water and it began clogging the pipes. The upkeep and repairs to the pipes were getting costly, so they made a decision to turn it off all together.

Final Thoughts

This is a beautiful and very well maintained park. The park also uses sustainable technologies and almost every drop of water that falls on the park is used to maximize green space. The bathrooms (very clean bathrooms) and park buildings use a green roof to conserve energy as well. Amidst the high rise concrete buildings, this is a natural oasis that's full of trees and grassy meadows. It’s such a hidden gem amongst the busy downtown neighborhood.

We also didn’t forget to stop by and grab yummy pastries and coffee from Clark Street Bread.