Tucked beside the junction of highways 24 and 13, Lake Temescal is the East Bay Regional Park District's urban oasis, popular for swimming, fishing, sunbathing and picnics, as the district puts it.
Visiting now
The park is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the gates open at 8 a.m. The swim beach has closed for the season and is scheduled to reopen for swimming in April 2027. The North Lot, at 6500 Broadway, charges $5 per vehicle on weekends and holidays from April through October, and the kiosk is cashless. The south entrance is off Broadway Terrace.
For accessibility, the Landvale Station and East Shore trails are wheelchair accessible, while the West Shore and Oak Bay trails are not. All restrooms are accessible, and beach wheelchairs can be borrowed free when the swim area is open.
A lake made from a sag pond
Before it was dammed, the site was a sag pond, a low spot created by the Hayward Fault, according to Wikipedia. In 1868 Anthony Chabot's Contra Costa Water Company dammed Temescal Creek to supply drinking water to the East Bay. Much of the digging was done by Chinese immigrant laborers, and herds of wild mustangs were used to pack down the earthen dam, which rises 105 feet above the creek.
In the late 1800s the shoreline was a camping spot for bohemian artists and writers, and at an 1892 campout here the young poet George Sterling was introduced to Ambrose Bierce, who became his mentor. The lake once extended into Temescal Canyon until fill for the Broadway (Caldecott) Tunnel approach cut it off in the 1930s. In 1936 it opened as one of the East Bay Regional Park District's first three parks, with a beach and a WPA-built boathouse.
Fishing
The lake is stocked periodically with rainbow trout, and it also holds largemouth bass, redear sunfish, bluegill and catfish. The state has posted a safe-eating advisory for fish caught here because of mercury and PCB levels, so check it before keeping your catch.