Hansen Dam Aquatic Center is an oasis in the San Fernando Valley.

While there is still a bit of summer left, I want to recommend the pool at Hansen Dam Aquatic Center. To get there we took the 101 to the 405 to the 118 to the 210 and exited on Foothill Blvd. That may seem like a long way to go for a swim, especially when we have Lindero Country Club right around the corner, but I took my kids to Discovery Cube Los Angeles for a day trip to check out the newest exhibits. It was a Tuesday when LAUSD was back in school and LVUSD wasn’t yet, so the center was not crowded and the kids blew through everything in 2 hours. Since we had time and I had packed our swim suits just in case, we went over to the pool.

We haven’t explored the Hansen Dam Recreation Area at all, before or since having children, so our visit to the Hansen Dam Aquatic Center was a delightful surprise. The center is a giant – like enormous, endless – pool with 2 waterslides next to a big manmade lake. Admission for swimming is $1 per child and $3.50 for adults (which is actually kind of backwards in my opinion since I went in the water for all of 5 minutes and the kids spent an hour in it!).

There is a food truck on site for snacks and at that time there was also a nice lady with a little ice cream cart. There are plenty of restrooms, showers, and changing rooms, and you can even rent a shade tent to stay out of the sun. We got there at 4pm so I was able to set up my chair in the shade of a tree.

Swimming Lake

The pool is referred to as a “swimming lake” as opposed to the larger recreational lake behind it. It is surrounded by a sandy beach, and you walk into the pool just like into a lake, except the bottom is concrete like a pool. At one end are the two waterslides, which you access by walking through a giant curtain of water (I guess to rinse you off whether you like it or not). One waterslide is closed, and that’s the one I went on because the open one was not operational that day. The closed waterslide was rather terrifying for a second, since you can’t see which way you’re going. But the kids didn’t seem to mind and they went on it over and over again. You can’t wear a rash guard on the slide – the lifeguards made my boys take theirs off.

Visit Soon!

The pool and waterslide are both open every day in the summer from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Starting September 6, they are only open Saturday and Sunday through September 25, and then they close for the season. But there are lots of other things to do at the recreation area so we will report back when we explore it some more!