Between the iconic Los Angeles River, Ballona Creek, Dominguez Channel, and numerous smaller creeks and brooks, LA’s got plenty of tributaries perfect for your next summertime staycation. The beaches may get a lot of good press – as they well-should! – but these waterways also have it all: intricate plant and animal ecosystems; plenty of space for fun in the sun; and opportunities to see our city’s stormwater projects up close and personal.
Whether you’re a die-hard cyclist, passionate picnic-goer, or a kayaker in-the-making, you’ll be in for some rip-roarin’ riparian revelry this summer. We’ve got a guide to LA’s rivers and creeks below, including some deep-dives into a few fascinating Safe Clean Water Program-funded projects along these waterways.
Los Angeles River
The Los Angeles River flows for almost 51 miles from the mountains all the way to San Pedro Bay. Every river-adjacent neighborhood has their own special spots and time-honored ways to engage with the river. And that includes the many non-native fish, wading birds – shout-out to those effortlessly graceful snowy egrets – and other avian critters who call the river home.
Cyclists and rollerbladers rejoice: The LA River Bicycle Path runs for just over 19 miles, though you can pop in and out at multiple entry points. (Frogtown is a favorite!) Despite its name, the bike path is also there for walkers and joggers. It’s an ever-illuminating passageway alongside one of our city’s most impactful, life-giving, powerful, and vulnerable landmarks.
Feeling adventurous? You can reach out to the LA River Kayak Safari to book a kayaking trip (really!) in the Elysian Valley/Frogtown segment of the River. Guides will help ensure your kayak trip is safe and fun for everyone. Who knew you could live out your deep-country nature-adventure dreams right in your own backyard?
LA River and Arroyo Seco Low Flow Diversions
LASAN’s stormwater quality monitoring program recorded high levels of bacteria in dry-weather discharge to the Arroyo Seco and the LA River. In order to get these bacteria levels down below the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), LASAN and the Bureau of Engineering (LABOE) introduced five Low-Flow Diversion (LFD) systems to divert dry weather flow from the LA River and the Arroyo Seco. Given that the TMDL is a critical metric for judging a water supply’s health and cleanliness, these LFDs provide crucial support to our city’s well-being.
Funded by the Safe Clean Water Program, these LFDs are peppered along the Arroyo Seco and LA River and divert polluted urban runoff from these two waterways into LA’s sanitary sewer system for treatment. The two Arroyo Seco LFDs are located at Sycamore Grove Park and Hermon Dog Park respectively (both in Northeast LA), while the LA River’s three iterations were installed closer to DTLA, at 2nd St. & Rose Ave and Palmetto St. & Santa Fe Ave, and along Mission Road.
Ballona Creek
Flowing from Mid-City all the way to Marina del Rey, the beginning point of Ballona Creek was once a village for the Gabrieleno, Tongva, Kizh nation peoples. This richly important body of water now has a concrete bottom for its first 10 miles, until it opens up into its soft-bottomed, ‘Estuary portion’ all the way to the sea. For staycationers, we recommend the Marina del Rey portion, potentially to cap off a day traipsing along Venice Beach.
And for our stormwater supporters, Ballona Creek is extra-special. The City of LA has used SCWP funds to develop the Ballona Creek Watershed Management Program and the Ballona Creek Bacteria TMDL Project. The project aims to lower bacteria levels in Ballona Creek and Estuary, diverting water via low-flow diversions to LA’s Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant for treatment and reclamation.
Fern Dell
Located at the base of Griffith Park, the creek running through Fern Dell is in fact a tributary of Ballona Creek. Safe Clean Water Program funding has been granted for a feasibility study for a restoration and stormwater capture project at Fern Dell. There’s hope that this project will be elevated within the Safe Clean Water Program to a full design phase in coming years.
There’s something truly magical about this creek: it’s dark and shaded, so that a hot summer day instantly feels a few degrees cooler, and quaintly-carved wooden handrails along the Ferndell Nature Trail further serve to create its very ‘fairy tale’ feeling. A favorite for Angelenos of all ages, Fern Dell is a little slice of heaven in Los Feliz.
Coming Soon: Caballero Creek Wetlands Park Project
Back in 2023, we covered the groundbreaking of Caballero Creek Wetlands Park (revisit that blog here), a section of once-vacant land at the confluence of the LA River and Caballero Creek in Tarzana set to be transformed into a multi-benefit public park. Creating a park is like planting a tree: after years of careful planning, tending, trials, and testing, what started as a little seed will start to bear fruit the whole community can enjoy. We’re thrilled to report that Caballero Creek Wetlands Park is now wrapping up construction.
The Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority (MRCA), who broke ground on the project, will soon be handing over the operation reins to the City of LA’s Safe Clean Water Implementation Division (SCWID) and LA Recreation and Parks.
This 1.6 acre space will be the first net-zero, self-sustaining park in LA, meaning stormwater and dry weather runoff will be captured and treated (with solar power!) on-site, and then that newly-cleaned water will be used to irrigate the park itself. The park will feature everything from a wetland wildlife habitat and bioswale to native plants, a trail, interpretative learning areas, and a shaded platform that can be used as an outdoor classroom.
And the stormwater treatment efforts will help LASAN comply with the LA River Trash, Bacteria, and Metals Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) as described in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Stormwater Permit. In acronym-free terms, this means that treating stormwater at Caballero Creek helps decrease the amount of pollutants in the LA River.
We’ll be updating our readers when the park is officially open to the public!
We’d love to see your staycation snapshots! Email photos of your favorite local waterways to LAStormwater@LACity.org.
This article is one of three in our 2026 Summer Staycations series highlighting LA’s beaches, lakes and rivers. To learn more about LA’s lakes and beaches, visit Summer Staycations: LA’s Lakes and Summer Staycations: Beaches Galore.
