Rock Pool (Malibu Creek)
Malibu Creek State Park (Calabasas) · near Calabasas / Malibu · Los Angeles / SoCal
Swimming & Hot Springs
At a glance
- Temperature
- 64–75°F
- Cost
- State park day-use parking fee
- Season
- Late spring–fall · Check water quality advisories after first rains
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
- Safety
- Jumping from the cliffs is prohibited and enforced (and people still get hurt) — swim, don't send. Summer algae/quality advisories occasionally post; check the park site.
Swimming & Hot Springs detail
- Type
- swimming-hole
- Temp
- cool
- Clothing optional
- No
- Directions
- Malibu Creek State Park entrance off Las Virgenes/Malibu Canyon Road; walk the flat Crags Road ~1 mile and branch briefly to the Rock Pool below the volcanic cliffs.
- Pools
- A dramatic pool ringed by volcanic rock walls on Malibu Creek — the much-filmed heart of the park (Planet of the Apes, M*A*S*H country), with shady banks and easy family access.
- Intl tip
- The M*A*S*H filming site with its rusting jeeps is 1.5 flat miles farther up Crags Road — do both. Malibu's beaches are 15 minutes down the canyon for the mountains-to-sea LA classic.
The guide
Rock Pool is Los Angeles's most cinematic swim — a boulder-ringed pool beneath volcanic cliffs on Malibu Creek that has stood i…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Rock Pool (Malibu Creek) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.097, -118.744