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Temescal Canyon Gateway…
48 reviews
Neighborhood: Pacific Palisades
Category: Parks
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
7 reviews for Ballona Creek
I'm looking forward to the renovations being complete on the Eastern end of this path. Otherwise, Ballona Creek is a perfectly pleasant-and-traffic-free bike artery between Culver City and the Marina.
Leigh-Anne is right - you need to be aware of your surroundings as the path can attract some unsavory elements. I wouldn't worry about it too much, though.
I enjoy riding East -- with the wind -- but heading West towards the sea yields a better workout. It's true the view is of the gritty-urban-bowels variety, but the flow of the water at high tide and the shenanigans of the various avian species here are enough to keep me amused.
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I haven't seen homeless people along the path lately and I use it fairly frequently. I do see a lot of teens hanging out under the cross-roads (god, have I gotten so old that I look at all "kids" with skepticism?). The only "incident" I've ever encountered was once I saw some pre-teens push over a middle-aged man who was biking. They quickly hopped a fence and ran off.
But I LOVE this path all the same. It's a straight shot to the ocean. It's not pretty, but there's a great breeze that blows through there (making it sometimes difficult to go west-bound). It's straight, relatively flat, and there are no stops.
Please, please, please ride this path. The more bikers we can get on it, the more it will be self-policing.
But it's definitely better to ride with at least one other person, and try not to ride it after dark.
Some say this path is sketchy, other say this is a place for relaxation. I love this path. I absolutely love this path. I bike to work quite often. It's a great path to ride on. At times, the "river" might smell a bit because people would dump shit into the stream. On a nice day, in most occasions, you get to see wild life in the stream. Ducks, seagulls, cranes, pelicans and more. This path would can lead you to Marina Del Rey as well as Redondo Beach. I also enjoy making runs from Lincoln at EA all the way to the beach. Great run.
This path is a little sketchy. And it's definitely not pretty, as noted. But I used to love hopping on my bike and riding down to the beach to chill out after a tough day at the office.
Unfortunately, I was attacked by a homeless man who blocked my path and tried to grab my neck one Friday afternoon as I was riding by on my bike. I broke free from his grip quickly, but it scared the shit out of me. Totally unprovoked, and (I hope) totally random. It happened while I was going towards the beach, just before the Lincoln Blvd overpass. The police told me afterwards that stretch is where a lot of homeless folks live. Women who use this path by themselves, be careful. I used to run down here alone, and will no longer.
Glad to hear from Carl that the police are actually patrolling the area now.
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CATEGORY: RECREATION
Th Ballona Creek Bike Path starts at Syd Kronenthal Park in east Culver City and extends about 7 miles to the Coast Bike Path. I usually run this path about 5 times a week, it does amazing help for my cardio needs. I enter at Inglewood and run to the beach. Many bikers frequent this bike path as well, biking back and forth. Once you start in Culver City, you have a couple options once you get to Marina Del Rey. You can either head into the touristy part of the Marina, or you can continue towards the Manhattan and Hermosa beaches by utilizing the path.
If you run or bike this thing consistently, you will start recognizing regulars, as some people actually frequent the bike path everyday. Also, they are steadily doing improvements on it, such as marking distances to the beach, repainting the yellow lines on the path to give it a fresher look.
At one point, the bike path had a bad element as many vagrants and sometimes illicit activities would happen here. However, there has been a larger presence of patrol on the bike path and its been appreciated.
Physical fitness resonates throughout your demeanor in a positive fashion, if you want to push yourself by running or biking, Ballona Creek Bike Path provides the perfect outlet.
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I've done this ride a lot because it's free and clear of any killer cars trying to rub my back tire and cause me an endo. It's a great workout with the slight up and downs and you can go as fast and as long as you want without having to stop! That alone makes it worth a ride. The views are of concrete, gross water, backs of houses and finally the beach- only one of those is good. I take the path from Culver to the Marina and back and I feel perfectly safe especially since I always go on a weekend afternoon and there's plenty of other bikers and walkers out and about. So get out there and spin away, just don't stare at the water too long lest you make too good of friends with a chain link fence.
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It's not pretty. It isn't completely safe. It even smells a little funny. But heck, it is a clear shot from downtown culver city to the beach. If you have a bike, this is the best way to get from culver to manhattan beach or playa on a busy summer's day. Plus, biking saves the environment!
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