Rustic Canyon Recreation Center

This is a lovely, gem of a park with hammocks, picnic area, parking and a pool. The breeze coming off the ocean was refreshing and cool on a hot day inland.

Trees, trees, trees! I love this park. They have a pool during the summer and a ton of picnic areas. The kids area is never too packed and it’s super relaxing to just come down and enjoy nature while your kids play! :)

1 of the nicest parks I’ve ever been to. It has few different sport fields that are nice. Has a picnic benches with some grills. It’s very quiet and can hear the wildlife. 1 bad thing is that there are signs everywhere that say «Keep your dog on a leash» but most people don’t even care. If I lived closer I would visit a little more often just to relax.

I live near here and absolutely love this place. It’s so pretty here and untouched/​spoiled.
It’s an amazing area.

Cool park in the midst of Palisades’ mansions. You would never know it exists unless you know someone in the Palisades.
The center itself isn’t special, but walk down the steps and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. There is a basketball court, tennis courts, picnic tables & playground. What’s really nice is all the low hanging trees that create year round shade. Probably the best feature of this place.
So if you can locate this place expect few people and enjoy your time!

I came here to watch CityShakes’ outdoor reproduction of Shakespeare’s «As You Like It» play. The park has its own free parking lot (albeit only holds ~20−30 cars) and a lot of trees for shade. Great place to spend a few hours or exercise on the trails around the area. We brought lunch, borrowed a blanket, and enjoyed sitting in the sun and the breeze watching very talented actors and actresses performing a Shakespeare classic.

This park is a rarity in Los Angeles. It practically hides away in a neighbor hood, and it’s well guarded by all the trees that are around the park which adds a nice nature feel to the scenery. If you’re looking for a place to just take a break from being in doors, from being glued to the TV or computer, and want to either lay out in the sun, play tennis, or just have a little picnic on the field, then this is a place to check out!

The crazy part of this park is if you walk down from the fire trail steps into the canyon. There is a big abandoned fort. No one knows exactly what it is but there is an LA times article that claims it may have been a nazi sympathizer hideout in the 40’s, pretty crazy that will get your imagination going!

The trails are beautiful, but just as an FYI:
The Will Rogers trail leads you to a horrible end, where you have to either go back up the 2.1 mile trail or walk a mile on sunset to get back to your car! There should definitely be some sort of Mao at each trail so you can know how much you’ve screwed yourself over!
Good workout though, added miles to my workout…

Rustic Canyon offers an amazing mountainbike ride from bottom of Capri Road up the Sullivan fire road past Camp Joseph all the way up to Mulholland Drive. Once on top you can extend your ride to Nike Missile Site (leftovers from the cold war) where you can enjoy in amazing view of Downtown LA, Venice, ocean…
Great ride (roughly 12 miles roundtrip from bottom to top of Mulholland)!
Park on corner of Amalfi and Capri.

Rustic Canyon hosts Movies in the Park, Saturday evenings around 7:30 p.m. in June and July– the perfect family activity. Check the website for the movie schedule!

I love this park! It’s hidden away up in the canyon, and the perfect park to go to when I just want to get away from the world. I love to come here and sit in the sunshine and read magazines.
There’s also tennis courts and even a small pool that’s open in the summer.

This majestic wooded wonderland, the jewel of Latimer Road and perhaps the entire charade known as the «Pacific Palisades,» was once ruled by a salty tyrant called «Jan.» Who knows if she still wields her clipboard and scepter? – not I – but even her roguish ways and surly demeanor couldn’t diminish the splendor of the Canyon. The park is a delight in daytime hours for Frisbee, tennis, tree-​climbing, potato sack races, binge-​drinking, «Summer Camp,» and straight chilling with dogs. In the evenings, the facility becomes a creepy-​but-​amazing beacon of hope for all those interested in learning ceramics, playing ping-​pong while your parents get together with Persian dudes for indoor volleyball games, and spotting Wayne Knight, Seinfeld’s Newman (and Jurassic Park’s Dennis), walking his twin schnauzers on the premises. All in all, never a dull moment.

This park is a great place to spend a few hours. There are tennis courts, a basketball court, and a large field where people were playing catch, playing with their dogs, etc. I came here with dog and boyfriend in tow on a beautiful Saturday morning. There were roughly a dozen other cars in the lot when we arrived at 10:30. We walked around the park, sat on a park bench wishing we had brought books to read and then took a walk around the surrounding neighborhood streets.
If you walk past the tennis courts there are two gates that exit out onto the street. We walked down Latimer Street which dead ends after 15 or so minutes. There are beautiful houses to look at and you feel like you are deep within the woods.
By the time we left around 1pm the parking lot was full and a lot of people were arriving for picnics. I myself cant wait to invite people back to barbecue and play a game of basketball.

Joan covered it all except the drinking fountain…
So I’ll cover that.
Honestly, the water fountain near the front entrance of the gym (it’s outdoors, between the gym and parking lot) provides the freshest tasting cold water. This really must be the best tasting drinking fountain in any of the parks I’ve been to. Yummmmy!

This very secluded park can be difficult to find, but it’s worth the effort when you do, provided you’re seeking thickly-​wooded peacefulness far removed from any sound of road noise.
After considerable research, I’m still not certain the park space is technically in Santa Monica. It might be within Pacific Palisades boundaries. It’s accessible from Sunset in P. Pal, if you take Brooktree Road to Latimer. And the park is also accessible from the bottom of Santa Monica Canyon, via Channel Road to Mesa to Latimer. Either way you will travel up narrow winding lanes, with room for one car only, so the ascent is slow & cautious, not to mention beautiful.
The park is close to the highest elevation, but has no views to speak of. The space is thick with eucalyptus & pine trees, resembling a forest that contains park amenities. I also admired oak & sycamore throughout the property. My photos offer a more detailed description.
The residential enclave that surrounds the park consists of homes that are rustic, indeed… beautiful vintage structures made of logs & redwood that are set into the wooded hills. If not for the eucalyptus trees, it could pass for Tennessee. But you’re only a few blocks from the ocean, there’s that too…
Rustic Canyon is certainly one of LA’s many unique hidden spots. For those who want to reside in a private, quiet location in an area that is still close to all the attractions of Santa Monica, SaMo Canyon is the perfect place. Yes, it’s expensive, but I’d gladly pay the price if I could, just to get relief from my noisy neighbors in the condo fishbowl I call home.
As you enter the park you’ll see the community center, which contains a gym & various multi-​purpose rooms. They offer a variety of programs here… in addition to activities for seniors & crafts, I believe there’s a coop nursery school, and it looked like afternoon childcare was in place yesterday, late in the day.
The gym has indoor basketball courts and I think I noticed a ping pong table by the front entrance.
There’s plenty of free parking in the lots, see photos.
The pool was drained for the winter months, but other park facilities were in use, downhill from the community building… which itself is vintage & lovely, btw, Spanish architecture with a courtyard fountain (pictured).
There’s an unlighted baseball field, a basketball court, a couple of kids playgrounds, picnic areas with grills, and 6 tennis courts. Most areas are shaded by the thick vegetation.
Rather than fight my way back to Redondo Beach through rush hour traffic, I would rather have pitched a tent in the eucalyptus grove yesterday. That’s how appealing this park was, to me.
29 photos.