Hopkins Wilderness Park

Mother of two wild things that love to explore unencumbered by their hovering mom! This place is great for that. My guys are 2 years old, just starting to climb and run. The park is completely enclosed, the pond is maybe a foot deep, the animals are chill, the ground is relatively soft! So I totally chill when I come here, worry free and my kids think they’re doing big things! Bring a picnic, there’s plenty of tables.
The park closes on Wednesdays!!! I didn’t know this my first visit. Broke a couple of promises, yikes!
Parking lot right in front, I’ve never had trouble finding a spot.

Where else in Southbay can you drive five minutes and find yourself in a virtual forest without a single car and sometimes person in sight. There are two small ponds for feeding frogs, turtles and fish. There are very wooded areas too high to walk through. It’s an amazing getaway where you quickly forget you are surrounded by parking lots, and pavement. The whole place takes about an hour to fully walk and explore but can but can be done much quicker too.

This place is amazing. Animals are friendly and will eat from your hand. There is also a hiking trail if your in the mood for a hike. Love bringing my fam on Sunday afternoons

It’s a nice ‘get away’ from the suburbs of Torrance/​Beach cities. Went here for the summer a couple times with our kids and they had a good time feeding the animals in the pond. I do wish the one pond remaining would be better kept… lots of green /​white foam /​sludge going on… I would probably freak out if my kid fell in, it’s pretty gross.
The paths are great and trees are nice and some are great for climbing. Parking is plentiful, as are picnic tables.

Hopkins Wilderness Park is tucked away from plain view. It’s easy to miss. It’s surprisingly big. There’s plenty of parking. The views are beautiful.
There are ducks, turtles and koi fishes. We took cookies and even fed a squirrel. I didn’t think that the water fountain worked. But it does, so watch out or you’ll get wet as it shoots far.

Lights! Camera! Action! If you want to see photographers in action, apparently this is the place to be. We went for a walk with the kiddos and kept accidentally traipsing through other people’s family photos. I sure hope they got a good shot of us!
For a free public park, this park is larger and has many mature trees. Many have knots and low branches great for climbing. These trees give the park a woodsy feel and so is popular with the shutterbugs. Some are even showing fall colors for the best holiday family portrait!
The park has a small man made pond that hosts ducks, carp, turtles and tadpoles. There are lots of large flat rocks surrounding the pond, perfect for the little one to have or share a snack.
Being a public park often visited by kids, the grounds are a bit in disrepair. There are downed trees in the way, yellow tape marking off stairs that no longer are safe, fluorescent spray paint marking trees that might need spraying, etc. The trails are not clearly defined as folks just wander where they want; so there is little new life (eg saplings, flowers, etc) that’s survived the trampling. If you want more pristine wildlife in the local area, try the Madrona Marsh or the South Bay Botanic Gardens.
That said, we saw everything we had on our checklist:
— talk trees, check
— butterflies, check
— tiny bird, check
— turtle, check
Two boys even found a lizard and showed it to us.
Day and night camping available with permit. Might be fun when the kids are in kindergarten.

Our family loves Wilderness. It’s a perfect place to divert our little pre-​schoolers for an hour or two. We feed the ducks, koi, and turtles. We walk the paths and go off paths. We climb hills and view the city-scape.We play and sing in the amphitheater, we visit the dried up pond and talk about the drought, we climb the low hanging oak tree branches, and picnic here. We crunch and play with dry leaves. We smell the pines. There’s some composting and garden areas to see as well. There are bathrooms and water fountains, and lunch tables. When the kids get older, we’ll do overnight camping. I’m very thankful there’s a spot like this is this over-​developed area.

I never knew this park exist. And there is probably a reason for that…
It is an urban park, with birds, turtles and golden fish, so it can be perfect if you want to see young kids get excited. It is always nice to visit a green place inside the city, but I wouldn’t get over excited about coming here. The kids were happy to watch the ducks, and to feed the animals (Buy the food, don’t just use anything please!!!).
Nice Park that involve some animals activity.

I cant believe we have missed this spot for so long. Great for hiking around with the little ones & exploring nature. We enjoy having a snack here, bringing some paper and sketching, and observing all the creatures and plants here.

What happened to the wilderness park? There were many turtles and birds. Since the pond at the end has dried out where did the turtles go? No sign or explanation of the deconstruction. Only a large fence around a dry pond. I still give it a 4 because of the trees, grass and hills. It’s a little forest hidden in the middle of the city.

I never knew this place exist…
I took my son and he loved it! He loved feeding the ducks, koi fish, and the turtle. The place is real peaceful… We will be back again!

It appears the city of Redondo Beach has stopped maintaining the pond here like they used to. The water is murky, and all the turtles are gone except for one large soft shelled turtle. You’ll have to be lucky to catch the turtle in the shallow end to see it. There are still some Koi fish in the pond. It’s quite a shame that the city of Redondo Beach has cut back on maintaining this.

I never knew this place existed, it’s a hidden gem. The small pond has fish, turtles and ducks you can feed. If you weren’t looking for this place you would surely miss it just driving by it.

This is a great, little chunk of wilderness in the midst of a lot of concrete. I have taken my 19 month old here twice. He loves picking up rocks, sticks, digging in the dirt, looking at the critters in the pond. It isn’t amazing by grown-​up standards, but I love it for the little ones. It has free and easy parking. It is definitely worth checking out. Oh, and it is very shady for those hot, sunny days.
Too bad the water is filthy. I won’t let him touch it. It grosses me out.
Also, I got my first mosquito bite in 15 years of living in Los Angeles. I saw what looked like a mosquito, swatted it, and now have an itchy bite. I will be wearing long pants from now on. My friend also got a bite from something.
Update: I have been here many times since my original review. This is the perfect little nature oasis for a 2 year old. It is just big enough to really explore, yet not too big to be taxing. Also, they completely scrubbed all the algae out of the pond.

I saw you could camp here overnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Bottom line: IT COST $ 240 + camper fees ($ 5 per person) for the staff fee no matter how many people camp (1 or 10)
So I drive to the office and ask about camping for two people and they want to collect $ 250.00 for one night in our own tent.

Wilderness Park is awesome, a great little forest like that Redondo Beach offers. The only sucky thing about this place is that they close early, 4:30pm but hey, NO CHARGE AT ALL, so take advantage of it. Don’t expect any colorful things such as flowers, gardens and all because this somewhat reminds of a forest – mostly trees, woods, ponds and creeks. ALL GREEN: D It’s a great place for family and especially for kids. Ponds full of koi fishes, ducks, turtles and such was very interesting. You can even have a picnic here with your family; they have grills and tables, benches and logs. Enjoy the scenery and have a bit of nature: D FREE PARKING, FREE ENTRANCE, yeah all you gotta worry about is to appreciate it!

Came here w/​family and our kids… place is clean and trails are super kid friendly. We enjoyed it so much we are planning another trip already the 4 stars ws only for the 2^nd lake that is under construction or repairs it took away from the beautiful landscape.

As a photographer, I recommend this park for photography, a secret Southbay location! I’ve lived in Redondo for almost a year and never knew it existed. However, it has very diverse backgrounds in terms of fir trees, city overlooks, palm trees and a pond (as well as multiple clean bathrooms for wardrobe changes) and free parking! As always, you can see my shoots on fb: Annika Alexandra Photography

This is a pretty cool place to take a walk and enjoy some scenery. It’s free and small. I think you can camp at this place if you really wanted to, but the ground looks pretty darn rough. I’ve already pitched a tent though… In my pants.

Only few minutes drive from Torrance and very peaceful. No charge to get in.
One of the attendant there was nice. He let me borrow a small cup to put koi food
I bought from the vending machine.
It’s no botanical garden so don’t expect to see anything beautiful.
However, there are plenty of trees in the park and you do forget you are in
Redondo Beach.
Will definitely come back in the future!

This place is a nice little escape — I take my 3-​year old daughter here a lot and we hike around, have a picnic lunch, feed the ducks and just explore the park. She seems to really enjoy it and it’s a great way to burn a couple of hours on a Saturday without spending a lot of $$$$. It’s really amazing that you’re just a block off a busy street yet you really do feel like you’re in the middle of the woods; lots of trees, shade, always a nice breeze, birds chirping and squirrels running about.
The park has two separate ponds with Koi fish, ducks and turtles and both have a dispenser where you can buy a handful of food for 25-​cents. Because I go here a lot, I actually have a big bag of Koi food pellets in my car and I just pour some into a Tupperware for my daughter before we head into the park; it’s much easier and cost effective (plus I have never have change, haha). I bought the food at Pet Smart and double checked with them that it was safe for the ducks and turtles as well before buying it.
Seriously, what’s not to love?
— Free entry
— Free parking
— Fun for adults and kids
— Fairly clean bathrooms
— Picnic areas w/​BBQs
— Trees, ponds, creeks, a lot of shade, and cool breeze in your face :-)
— Lot’s to explore
— Wildlife in the middle of the city!

I love koi fish, this park has one of the best koi fish pound in the area, so I’m a fan.
I was miffed when some teenagers accidentally burned down the lower part of the park, then it was off-​limit to the public for a long long time. Let’s hope that never happens again.
The camping price is kind of high as someone mentioned here, but if u don’t want to drive far, this is the place to feel like in the camp. We did it once, boy, it was chilly there even in the summer.
Camping close to home has it’s perks and shortcoming too, one of us ended up going back home to bring stuff back several times, ^_​^ we might as well stayed at home.
There are two park attendants who takes the turn watching the park. I’ve noticed some interesting changes among them, one was mean years ago but now he is nicer; while the other one was nice before but is now grumpy, yeah he will snap at u if he sees u feeding the fish with something other than the fish food from the vending machine. If u got away with feeding the fish with bread crumbs, lucky u. He certainly let my kids hear his voice when they tried to feed fish with bread, even though that bread prob tastes better than the fish food. Still fish needs to eat fish food. Just sayin’. So bring some quarters and a cup to take the splattering fish food from the machine, enjoy the tranquil nature while the kids feed the fish.
Also no butterfly net is allowed, even if the kids are just holding it, and promise to release them right after catching them. I think if they paid more attention to where it mattered, the park wouldn’t have been burned down. I’ve kept my mouth shut all these years about that, maybe it’s time for me to give them my piece of mind!!! Yeah, I’ll have u know I have a voice too!
The lower pound has this amazing calming effect on me, esp. when it’s all quite around. The fish and turtles co-​exist harmoniously in there, so peaceful!
The rec. dept. of RB has classes there regularly, the exhibit room often is closed to the public when the class is in session.
Bathroom there creeps me out a little, it’s very dim in there.
There was a geocache in the park, have fun looking for it.