Cute little pathway trail park up in the hills. Stumbled crossed here after a marketplace item pick up and took my little baby for a walk. It's cute tucked in and has a whimsical feel from the bush trails read more

Galster Wilderness Park - Christmas berries and Frida! - Parks Near Me - West Covina, California

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Not dog friendly at all. Overgrown weeds, moderate/hard hike, and not safe for pets. The park feels creepy, dirty, and covered in graffiti. When I got there, a drunk girl was loitering in the parking lot, definitely not coming back. read more

Small park with a short hiking trail some marker native plants. Hike up the concrete path to see the viewpoint. The trail is short, but interesting to read markers about our native plants such as black walnut trees and a sample of how a poison oak tree looks like and to avoid it along the path. I enjoyed the educational aspect of the short shaded walk. Yes, you'll see ugly tagging which is a sad part of our society today, but it's still a nice escape from city life even for a half-hour to an hour. On a weekday, there was only 1 other hiker and a couple of teenagers hanging out paying loud music close to the bottom of the trail close to the other entrance /park. There is a stocked bathroom with toilet paper which is always appreciated before and after my nature walks. There are stories of this place being haunted , but I didn't experience anything. A man committed suicide and was found hanging from one of the trees in 2013. https://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20130602/man-found-hanged-at-galster-park-in-west-covina/ read more

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My family came to Galster Wilderness Park due to the great reviews on Google and expected to go hiking on a nice trail or two. Unfortunately, the park is pretty lacking. It has one small playground with little to no kids. The trails are overgrown and unusable. It looks like some homeless people are living in a spot adjacent to the lookout. The paved paths are short, steep, and only lead in a circle to the parking lot. I definitely wasn't worth our time here. We're heading to a bigger, nicer park with an established playground. read more

Just a nice little park. All the stories about this park are just myths and made up stories that just get around and told differently. This is a wilderness park so there are animals in here too and there are trials in which you can get lost during the night time that's why they lock the park as well. Lots of teenagers go here during the night and even hop the fence to try and "find" his house or shack. read more

First time going to Galster Park and it was very nice! Saw some a hiking trail, but came here for a picnic. It was pretty quiet and peaceful. There was plenty of tables that were covered under the patio or near the playground. Lots of parking too. Not sure if it's because most people come here for the trail or if it's just a small park. read more

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Loved this park it has privacy. You can rent the port Work as were kids can play grass area loved it just loved it.

Maybe I went through a different trail or something but this place gave me some eerie vibes. You can tell this place has been active and probably still is because of all the graffiti and what not. I reached the park area and it looked clean but there was some random couple in a car probably getting high or whatever. Anyways I'm pretty sure there's a beautiful view somewhere here but I haven't reached it yet. I'll come back soon with a switchblade . read more

Great park for a local hike to get a little into nature & escape the burbs. Minus a star for trash left behind by partying teens. Graffiti taggers left a mess too in some spots read more

This is definately not the park you would go to for a picnic or have something festive like a birthday party. There are not much people around here as many have stated and the trails are somewhat run down and full of graffiti. Family friendly? Definately not! I'm sure you're probably Yelping this place because you have heard of it tales of hauntings, murder, crimes and rapes. Is it true? I am not so sure, but if you Google.com this place it talks of a lot of events that occured at the park. I can tell you that at some point the park was closed to the public. The place does have some sort of a unsettling vibe to it! If you want to visit somewhere haunted near the area look up an old abandon church on Lark Ellen that has been reformed to a new housing development called Citrus. Hangout on the the riverbed of that place at night and I can almost guarantee you will hear or feel something! read more

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My buddy Ike decided to start a paranormal investigation club. It consisted of him, his cousin and I. He even named the club the Pico Rivera Paranormal Society and made us all cute little membership cards with our picture on it. My First trip with them was to the Downey Insane Asylum which had cops patrolling the area because of people like us who wanted to take a look at the place. Our 2nd visit was to Galster Park. It was said that a man raped and killed children and that their spirits haunt the park. It was around 11pm when we got to this park. It was closed, but my friend did some research online and found out that there was a chain link fence on the side of the park that someone had cut through and it was big enough for us to crawl through. we were armed with flash lights, cameras, and a tape recorder. So we hiked around took random pictures. My friend went to the play ground with his recorder and attempt to contact the spirit of the dead children. We then started hiking up a steep hill when all of the sudden you hear a voice of a girl yelling for her mama. It was so dark and we weren't really on a official trail so it was hard to figure out where the voice was coming from. It was obvious that the voice was of someone trying to mess with us. so we turned around and went into down another path where we we ran into 10 little boys, 10 teenage, still living boys to be exact. They were there for the same reason as we were. One guy flash his light in my face and asked if I was a ghost? I said, "yeah.... I'm dead." Well the night prove to be unsuccessful. Except my friend was excited over some of my pictures. he think my pictures contain a lot of orbs from the spirits. I think its dust since we were kicking up a lot of dirt walking on a unpaved trail. If this place is haunted, its haunted by people looking for ghost. read more

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Somewhat difficult trail as you go further up. Definitely got my heart rate up and nice cardio. Liked this trail but after reading the reviews and while I was there was a little creepy. I came in the afternoon and there were not a lot of people there. Almost got to the top of the trail but saw two people doing weird stuff so immediately turned around. As I headed back some teenagers were blasting their rap music. At that point I just acted normal but wanted to leave, lol. There was also a deserted building I didn't have the guts to go and explore. I'm sure it's not a horrible trail but just the vibe and lack of people there that afternoon. I would not bring my kids here, haha! Posting some pictures so you can see how high up this trail gets. Next time I'm going to D-bar! read more

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Really great park, I was a little skeptical at first because the graffiti on the rocks but I later found out it was from some of the galster native forest cholos who ended up being really friendly and helpful! , they dwell in many of the parks trees and some even have "chunnels" (cholo-tunnnels) and the tower at the entrance is home to the forest cholo leader "baby creeper". They are a humble and mostly docile group of cholo. They showed us how to chop trees with special low riders equipped with sharpened bumpers and how to properly litter empty 40oz. Bottles. All in all a really great experience. Reccomend 10/10 tell lil squirrly I said hi and he will grant you a free graffiti pinecone read more

Let me tell you all something I have lived in this area my whole entire life and everyone always asks about this park is it haunted or not? I will tell you my side of this story and you be the judge. Now first of all the "myth" is that there was a man that owned the land that is now the park he lived at the very top in a little house, this dude was straight lunatic and would kidnap kids and murder them and hang them from the trees. The man committed suicide in the house. After he was long gone and the city took over the land and turned it into a "park" it wasn't a very good park because no one ever goes there. Now fast forward to this day and age, satanist do in fact kill animal and do weird sacrifices up there because I have found weird altar sights with dead cats and stuff. People have also committed suicide at the house on the top before it was torn down and also the old water tower. You can google all this if you don't believe me. Now those are just some facts about the background of the place, now my story. When I was younger me and my friends decided we wanted to see for ourselves if the place was haunted or not so we went after dark. (There is a reason this place gets locked down at sunset) so we arrive there and park and get out of the car, it's dark and all the street lights are on, right when we get out we see all the street lights flicker and turn off one by one except the one at the entrance to the park. We kind of laugh it off and jump over the fence and enter the park. We have our flashlights on and we start up the trail, mind you there is basically no lighting in this park at night so it's pitch black. We start walking up the hill and my friend gets a call from her brother she answers it and she hears static. She's like "hello???" And all of a sudden you just hear a little girl crying on the phone. She freaks out and hangs up, she starts saying she doesn't like what's happening she's scared she wants to leave. But we were already halfway up and we wanted to see the house at the top, so we convince her to stay and keep going. We finally are reaching the top and we see the house so we stop to catch our breath and we're talking and we look over there there is this weird shadow that looks like a small person. So my friend says in a low voice "hey there's someone over there shine your flashlight on them" my other friend quickly turns around and flashes the light on the shadow, gone. No one is there.. we turn around to say something and all of a sudden we hear a blood curdling scream, and we ran the hell out of there. A few months later the city tore down the house at the top. What was this apparition keeping us from?? read more

My friend and I might have put up a tree swing on the biggest tree in the park. Hint: it's near where the shack is from the urban legend. read more

Galster Wilderness Park - Hidden tree swing. It's on the biggest tree in the park! It's made with 4 nooses. - Parks Near Me - West Covina, California

This place is a little piece of heaven in the middle of the city. It's usually quite with only a few people in there.

There were three women sitting on the table of the picnic bench by the play park.... NO CHILDREN... So I went the other way and right behind the small hill unseen from the parking lot were three men standing around a picnic table drinking. Got bad vibes and decided not to stay... read more

Not bad of a trail... a lot of graffiti tho which is not a good sign.. my 8 year old daughter and I came on a nice afternoon. It was our first time here so we didn't know which way to really go. We decided to go up the paved road and kept heading up. It was really steep, got me sweating and it eventually wrapped around into a loop! It was probably around a mile or 2 around. We had a good time!! It could use some signs or arrows for navigation. read more

Galster Wilderness Park - Not bad loop trail, short but gets your blood pumping!!! - Parks Near Me - West Covina, California

Legend: The long-standing legend states, in a very Freddy Krueger-like manner, that this location derived its nefarious reputation when children began going missing due to some maniac abducting and killing them in the early 19th century. Since then many alleged apparitions have been reported mainly dealing with ghostly children manifesting {one with burn scars}, disembodied cries or sounds of laughter, and a shadowy form said to be that of the perpetrator himself, long since deceased, appearing at different points along the trails of Galster Park. I have hiked through its trails of easy terrain on a couple of occasions, and found it to actually be rather pleasant for constitutionals, especially around sunset, when the least amount of any other potential hikers would be present, probably due to the legend, and some rather unpleasant confrontations others have reported with 'gang' types in the past, which I have not had a problem with. As a matter of fact, the type tend to avoid Me. Since this investigation, the park has undergone some renovations and is subject to a recreation center on the property. Now there is an 'official' paved trail recommended for sightseers and amateur hikers, although independent hikers can still make their own way thereabouts. read more

It's a good little hiking trail but it's not long enough. We hiked all the way to the top and bottom in less than half an hour. It's not good for strollers my daughter is only going to be 2 and I couldn't take her. Bummer! By far my breast hiking trails are in Griffith Park, definitely a great work out. read more

Nice stroll. Great clean park for the kids. An optional steep hike if you choose to take alt route. Located in a nice quiet neighborhood. Very peaceful read more

Came to this small and quite little park to practice catching and throwing with my softball partner before our game at the Big League Dreams. This park is so small and quite, very secluded. I would just love to come back and have a quiet little picnic under the sun one day. This park is extremely close to the Big League Dreams, so close that it would take you only a mere three minutes to drive and park at the BLD lot. read more

This is a good trail in West Covina but I'm sure it scares off people right off the bat due to all the graffiti and trash. Definitely needs a cleaning, but besides that it offers a beautiful view of the city. read more

I don't think any body should be walking this place alone - use your own judgement, don't feel safe, just leave.

let me start off by saying that good for west covina for not turning this entire mountain side into a neighborhood yet. second off, no this place is not haunted but spooky vibes if you go alone. as an avid hiker, don't go here if you're looking for a challenging hike. I wouldn't even call it a hike if you go on the trail, more like a semi hard walk up a mountain in order to get a nice view of the valley. I have been here at midnight with my friends and it was lowkey creepy so if you are bored with your friends then come here or better yet, go to the abandoned hidden 1800s spadra cemetery in pomona that is not too far away. I actually have a youtube video giving a tour of this place for you all to check out if you want. read more

To be honest, i've lived in West Covina my whole life, and have visited Galster many, many times, and I have never heard about a ghost kidnapping kids at night, though I have hung out up by that "shack" (restroom). But the whole place does have a very creepy feeling about it, even in the daytime. Unfortunately, I do believe it is a somewhat popular suicide/murder/body dumping spot since it is so secluded (sadly, a friend of mine killed himself there), so beware of what you might find. Also, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, there is a pack of wild dogs living there that I have run into on several occasions, and it is certainly the scariest thing about the place! Do not enter unarmed. read more

This is a really lovely gem of a park in the middle of the city. There is a nice playground, hiking trails and areas for a picnic or party. There is also a great nature center there that is maintained by volunteers. They have really interesting things for the kiddos to explore as well as craft days the first Saturday once a month. Don't believe the haunted stories. This is a really great place. read more

I give this place one star only because I have too! To begin with we arrived at the park and there were single people sitting in their cars. Doing what, who knows. And then where was a homeless cholo looking guy sitting in the bushes. So we started the trail and as we turned the corner every turn gave me the willies. Upon the third turn we saw a HUGE snake on the trail with a squirrel in its mouth. We turned and left. Very creepy feel. I was sad because this park/trail is in my neighborhood and we couldn't even enjoy it! :( Don't waste your time!!! read more