Kenneth Hahn Park, formally the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, is a 401-acre regional park in the Baldwin Hills of 📝Los Angeles, CA. Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation manages it.
The land was home to the Tongva people for thousands of years before it became part of Spanish and Mexican land grants. In the twentieth century a reservoir was built on the site between 1947 and 1951, and it failed catastrophically in 1963, killing five people and flooding the Baldwin Hills Village area below. The county acquired the site in 1976 and opened it in 1983 as the Baldwin Hills State Recreation Area. It was renamed in 1988 for Kenneth Hahn, the longtime Los Angeles County Supervisor.
The park includes a fishing lake stocked with trout or catfish, at least seven miles of walking trails, a Japanese garden with a lotus pond and waterfall, playgrounds, and sports facilities. Its Olympic Forest has 140 trees representing the nations that competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Hilltop trails look out over Downtown Los Angeles, the Hollywood Sign, and Santa Monica Bay. The park borders the Inglewood Oil Field and gives habitat to coyotes, gray foxes, and more than forty bird species.
Cars pay an entry fee on weekends and holidays, while people who arrive on foot, by bike, or by transit get in free. County budget cuts have closed the park on Mondays and Tuesdays since June 2025. Its size and views have earned it the nickname "L.A.'s Central Park."
My neighbor Linda recommended Kenneth Hahn Park to me.