Lake Temescal

Beautiful park with nice views and trails. Spacious, well maintained, and clean restrooms. Not a lot of parking, so it's best to plan ahead. Overall, it's a really nice place to enjoy all that nature has to offer.

I always enjoy coming to Lake Temescal!!

Lake Temescal is much smaller than Lake Merritt, and it has more trails around it also. You can walk or run around this lake pretty quickly!

It gets pretty busy on the weekends, when sometimes you have to pay to park. But one of the highlights of this lake is that it actually has a beach, man made of course, but cool nonetheless!!.

There are restrooms and water fountains here also!! People come here to walk, run, picnic, bbq and fish!! I've seen some people catch some pretty good sized fish here! So when you swim here in the summer, you are swimming with the fish!!!

There is a Beach house here also next to the beach, which can be reserved for all types of private events!

A beautifully designed and maintained natural haven amidst the chaotic freeways and crime-ridden communities of the East Bay. This park is for everyone and everyone shows up. People are on their best behavior. They bbq and party but not to excess. Or like me walk their dogs, always on leash to assure others my dog is not going to bother them. Mostly it's just locals walking through. The water is available for swimming or fishing, neither of which appeals to me. But this little lake is lovely to look at, so I stop often and use one of the plentiful benches to observe the water from a different aspect. There's lots of parking, including on the street if you don't want to pay. Serenity prevails.

This is a pretty accessible and clean park for families and small events.

There isn't a lot to do here and the highway noise is non-stop and very loud. But you can find a few small quiet places if you look hard.

The park staff keep it pretty clean and the restrooms aren't too bad, though they don't have the best ventilation, so the stench is a bit rough. But for the Oakland area, it's pretty surprising to have multiple safe restrooms without serious problems.

Nice little pond. Noticed I said pond. It's small and nice. They have lightning trout there also.
People are friendly there.

Parking was RIDICULOUS. It took me and my 3 teens (with a "map" provided by staff ) over an hour in 100+ weather to find my group. Multiple parking lots were full/closed.

It was pretty and scenic yes! But the grass k. Various spots were soaked to the point of ruined shoes near our events "spot" and bathrooms were a bit of a disaster and distance to walk to.

It's a beautiful spot but come prepared !

A Jem of a park/small reservoir that is tucked away in the Oakland Hills, between Highway 24 and 13.

Lake Temescal, overseen by the East Bay Regional Park District, is extremely clean with great views of the natural landscape, water, and overlooks the entire East Bay/Oakland Hills area once you hike up the hill-y trail. It's a good 2-3 mile hike that loops around one full circle.

Would highly recommend this place for a picnic, a light 30-minute mid-day hike (for people who want to avoid high sun exposure), or for kids to run around while you enjoy the outdoors. There is ample benches, tables, play structures, and restrooms for the whole family to enjoy.

There's plenty of parking within the Park Area (noticed there is a guard shack that usually requires a $5/day parking fee, when manned), with plenty of street parking for folks who want to try their luck at free parking.

If you're looking for family-friendly in Oakland, this is definitely one of the family-friendliest spots because it's like Myers Lake near Mayberry on "The Andy Griffith Show". I was halfway expecting Andy and Opie to be walking by with their fishin' poles whistling and skipping rocks. But they didn't show up 'cause Aunt Bee probably had supper ready. Even so, it's a popular place for fishing as I saw somebody on every available pier. The lake is apparently stocked with a variety of fish. Otherwise what's the point, right?

I didn't come here to fish. Rather I was taking advantage of the short trails that circle the lake. There's an elevated one on the hills along the southern shore and a narrow one right on the lakeshore on the same side. The other side is paved with a beach that hasn't been open since the pandemic began. Not that I would dip my toe in the lake. There appeared to be a lot of sludge in the lake when I was there because the lake has a lot of sediment runoff and is getting shallower. But hey, what does climate change matter when it's pretty?

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It was a beautiful Fall day for a walk around the small lake. My son and daughter in law had their dogs. Leashes were required. The dogs loved barking at the ducks and pelicans in the lake. There were many large gatherings of people enjoying themselves.

PICNICS - summer is all about being outdoors in nature and picnics and hiking . I love Lake Temescal. Hubby and I have been coming here a couple of times already .

We bring our picnic basket our chairs and just enjoy the natural sunshine and beauty. On one side parking is $5 and this is the side with the gorgeous trees and pond .

Another side is really an open field and less picturesque!

Highly recommend lake temescal and will be back again and again