Colorado Lagoon
Long Beach, CA
Colorado Lagoon is a small, sheltered tidal lagoon tucked into a residential Long Beach neighborhood, connected to Alamitos Bay and restored in recent years as eelgrass and wetland habitat. It reads more like a quiet neighborhood pond than an ocean beach, which is exactly its appeal for families with young kids.
A genuinely calm, kid-safe pocket of water that most visitors to Long Beach never find, worth knowing about if you're local.
How we score beachesThis is a calm-water pick for small children, not a spot for anyone looking for open-water swimming or surf.
Free street parking around the lagoon.
Leashed dogs are welcome in the surrounding park and along the wetland trail, but dogs are not allowed on the small swimming beach itself.
Sheltered water warms faster than the open ocean, making it swimmable earlier in the season.
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