Bottom Line
The Big Agnes Echo Park 20 sleeping bag brings ultimate coziness to the campsite with comforter-like softness and a warm and roomy fit. Made with a hybrid shape, the Echo Park offers the spaciousness of a rectangular bag combined with the slight tapering of a mummy bag to minimize air pockets, making it easier to get its interior feeling toasty.
Big Agnes opts for a cotton-blend for the bag’s liner, a strikingly comfy departure from the smooth, slippery fabric used in most sleeping bags. The fabric choice lends the bag a bedsheet-like feel. Paired with its plush fill, the Echo Park is particularly warm and comfortable.
Like many of its sleeping bags, Big Agnes designed the Echo Park to work in conjunction with a sleeping pad. The clever system for integrating a pad into the bag is practical, but it becomes a major downfall when a pad is not in use. Its weight and bulkiness are also not a good fit for backpacking use. But for campsites closer to the car (or the car itself!), this sleeping bag ensures a good night’s rest thanks to its focus on comfort that won’t leave you missing your bed back home.
Quick Specs
Big Agnes Echo Park 20
Best Bed-Like Comfort in a Sleeping Bag
CleverHiker Rating: 4.2/5.0
Price: $220
Temperature Rating: 20°F
Weight: 4 lb. 9.6 oz.
Fill Type: Synthetic
Pros
- Cotton-blend liner is comfortable
- Spacious design allows for a range of sleeping positions
- Built-in sleeve to keep your sleeping pad in place
Cons
- Heavier and bulky packed size
- Bottom is uninsulated, requiring a sleeping pad
Comfort
Comfort is one of the defining characteristics of the Big Agnes Echo Park 20, thanks to its soft interior liner that feels more like bedsheets than classic sleeping bag fabric. Big Agnes uses a polyester-cotton blend that’s gentle on the skin and less slippery. We felt more secure tucked inside the Echo Park and didn’t slide around as we did in other sleeping bags.
The shape of the Echo Park isn’t a full rectangle; the bag is much wider than a mummy and doesn’t have as extreme tapering in its bottom half. This combination gives the Echo Park the best of both worlds. The influence of the mummy shape is more conducive to warming up and staying warm, while the bag also offers a less narrow fit that provides more room to spread out and move around while sleeping.
If you’re looking to fully lean into creature comforts, the Echo Park’s hood is large enough to fit a full-size pillow, making the sleeping bag feel even more bed-like.
Warmth
When used as designed, the Big Agnes Echo Park 20 won’t leave you feeling cold, thanks to its dense and cushy synthetic filling. Horizontal baffles keep the filling evenly spread through the length of the bag. Big Agnes uses highly durable 40D ripstop nylon for the bag’s shell and coats it with a DWR (durable water repellent) finish, making it more resistant to damp conditions. It also uses a cinchable hood to insulate the head, a draft collar to trap heat at the neck, and a zipper draft tube to further maintain warm interior temperatures.
The Echo Park is rated for 20°F, although we found it more comfortable to use in slightly higher temperatures. In our testing, the bag performed best from the high 20s and up, with it being the most comfortable in the low 30s.
However, there is one huge caveat to the Echo Park’s warmth. The bag’s bottom is uninsulated because it is intended to be integrated into a sleeping pad. If your sleep setup doesn’t include a thicker pad or you’re without one, the exposed bottom of the Echo Park will leave you susceptible to drafts, moisture absorption, and cold transfer between the ground and your body. When used as designed, though, the Big Agnes is a solid choice that will keep you cozy through cooler nights.
Weight & Packed Size
The Big Agnes Echo Park 20 isn’t the heaviest sleeping bag we tested, but it’s much denser and bulkier than more compressible down options. The bag weighs in at 4 pounds, 9.6 ounces, and generally feels heftier in hand or when trying to shove it into its stuff sack. Its packed size is 19 by 9 inches, taking up more space and, consequently, making it a less easily packable choice. We experimented with putting the Echo Park in one of our own compression sacks, and while it could be squeezed down into a slightly smaller shape, it still remained on the bulkier side.
We appreciated that Big Agnes includes a mesh storage sack with the Echo Park, which provides a breathable, spacious place to store the bag when not in use.
Features
The most significant feature of the Big Agnes Echo Park 20 is its “cinch pad sleeve” system, a ring of fabric that loops over a sleeping pad and cinches in place. This system is meant to lock a pad underneath the bag and to eliminate the slippage that often occurs when using a sleeping bag and pad together. This unique design is a very practical solution to a common problem. But as discussed above, the efficacy of the Echo Park’s warmth hinges on using this feature.
The Echo Park has an interior stash pocket that’s perfectly sized for a phone, keeping small accessories within reach. The bag also has a two-way zipper that runs the entire length and allows ventilation for your feet or easy access in and out of the bag.
Should You Buy the Big Agnes Echo Park 20?
The Big Agnes Echo Park 20 is the perfect option for anyone hoping to closely replicate their home bed in a camping setting. Big Agnes prioritizes comfort with the Echo Park, as evidenced by its soft interior liner, cushy filling, and features such as a hood, draft collar, and zipper draft tube. These elements add to the bag’s coziness, while enhancing its ability to keep you warm in temperatures dipping into the 20s.
The bag’s hybrid shape also combines the best of both worlds of mummy bags and rectangular bags. The tapered cut better retains heat, but remains wide enough to accommodate an array of sleeping positions and movement.
Although it falls in the middle of the pack in weight, the Echo Park is still too heavy to be a practical choice for backpacking. The most problematic aspect of the bag, though, is its uninsulated bottom that necessitates use with a sleeping pad or mattress. The Echo Park becomes significantly less comfortable and warm when used on its own. However, when you’ve got a pad or a layer between the bag and the ground, the Big Agnes Echo Park 20 will keep you toasty and wrapped in comforter-like coziness all night long.
What Other Camping Sleeping Bags Should You Consider?
Are you wondering how the Big Agnes Echo Park 20 stacks up against our other top picks? Find out on our best camping sleeping bags list. And consider these awesome alternatives:
REI Siesta Hooded 20 Review: Our top pick for camping sleeping bags thanks to its warmth, spacious and comfy interior, quality and lasting design, and useful features. The blanket-like loft of the Siesta makes it an incredibly comfortable choice, and its wider boxy fit accommodates a range of sleep styles.
REI HunkerDown 20 Review: A close cousin of the Siesta, the Hunkerdown features a very similar design, only with a down fill instead of synthetic. Its spacious rectangular shape provides plenty of flexibility for movement and sleep positions, and we love that it can unzip into a quilt for even greater versatility.
Teton Sports Celsius XXL 0F Review: The Celsius brings the coziness of the Echo Park in a roomier rectangular shape at half the price. Although several pounds heavier than the Big Agnes, the Celsius is a comfortable cold-weather option perfect for car camping.
