Big Agnes Echo Park 20 Sleeping Bag Review

The Bottom Line

The Big Agnes Echo Park 20 Large Sleeping Bag brings the ultimate in camping comfort with comfort-like comfort and a warm, roomy fit. Made of a hybrid shape, the Echo Park offers the width of a rectangular bag combined with a slight taper of the mother bag to reduce air pockets, making it easy to make its interior feel comfortable.

Big Agnes chooses a cotton blend for the lining of the bag, a comfortable departure from the smooth, slippery fabric used in most sleeping bags. The selected fabric lends the bag a bed sheet-like feel. Paired with its beautiful surroundings, Echo Park is warm and comfortable.

Like most sleeping bags, Big Agnes designed the Echo Park to work in conjunction with a sleeping pad. The clever system for attaching the pad to the bag works, but it becomes a major downfall when the pad isn’t in use. Its weight and size are also not suitable for backpack use. But for camping near the car (or the car itself!), this sleeping bag guarantees a good night’s rest thanks to its focus on comfort that won’t leave you missing your bed when you get home.

Comfort

Comfort is one of the defining features of the Big Agnes Echo Park 20, thanks to its soft inner lining that feels more like bed sheets than classic sleeping bag fabric. Big Agnes uses a polyester-cotton blend that is soft on the skin and not too slippery. We felt very secure inside the Echo Park and didn’t slip around like we did in other sleeping bags.

The shape of Echo Park is not a full rectangle; the bag is wider than the mother and does not have an extreme bulge in its lower part. This combination gives Echo Park the best of both worlds. The mummy shape effect is more conducive to warmth and staying warm, while the bag offers a smaller fit that gives you more room to spread out and move around while you sleep.

If you’re looking to fully recline in creature comforts, the Echo Park hood is large enough to fit a full-size pillow, making the sleeping bag feel even more like a bed.

Warmth

When used as designed, the Big Agnes Echo Park 20 will not leave you cold, thanks to its dense and cushy synthetic filling. Horizontal baffles keep the filling evenly distributed along the length of the bag. Big Agnes uses durable 40D ripstop nylon for the bag’s shell and coats it with DWR (durable water repellent), making it resistant to wet conditions. It also uses a snug hood to cover the head, a ribbed collar to trap heat around the neck, and a zippered inner tube to further maintain a warm interior temperature.

The Echo Park is rated at 20°F, although we found it very comfortable to use in slightly higher temperatures. In our testing, the bag performed best from the 20s and up, as it was most comfortable in the low 30s.

However, there is one major caveat to the warmth of Echo Park. The bottom of the bag is not included because it is intended to be integrated into the sleeping area. If your sleeping setup doesn’t include a thick pad or you don’t, the Echo Park’s exposed bottom will leave you vulnerable to drafts, moisture absorption, and cold transfer between the ground and your body. However, when used as designed, Big Agnes is a solid choice that will keep you cozy on cool nights.

Weight and Packaged Size

The Big Agnes Echo Park 20 isn’t the heaviest sleeping bag we’ve tested, but it’s a lot more compact and bulky than other low-compressibility options. The bag weighs 4 pounds, 9.6 ounces, and generally feels a little bulky in the hand or when trying to stuff it into its stuff sack. Its packed size is 19 by 9 inches, taking up a lot of space and, therefore, making it an easily packable choice. We tried fitting the Echo Park into one of our compression sacks, and while it didn’t squish into a compact shape, it still sat on the large side.

We noted that Big Agnes includes a mesh storage bag with the Echo Park, which provides a breathable, open storage area for the bag when not in use.

Features

The most important feature of the Big Agnes Echo Park 20 is its “cinch pad sleeve” system, a ring of fabric that goes over the sleeping area and cinches in place. This system is intended to lock the pad under the bag and eliminate the slipping that often occurs when using a sleeping bag and pad together. This unique design is a very useful solution to a common problem. But as discussed above, the performance of the Echo Park heating depends on the use of this feature.

The Echo Park has an internal stash pocket that fits the phone perfectly, keeping small accessories within reach. The bag also has a two-way zipper that runs the entire length and allows for air for your feet or easy entry and exit of the bag.

Should You Buy The Big Agnes Echo Park 20?

The Big Agnes Echo Park 20 is the perfect choice for anyone hoping to closely replicate their home camping bed. Big Agnes prioritizes comfort with the Echo Park, as evidenced by its soft interior lining, minimal padding, and features such as a hood, draft collar, and zip draft tube. These elements add to the beauty of the bag, while enhancing its ability to keep you warm in temperatures that enter the 20s.

The hybrid shape of the bag also combines the best of both mother bags and rectangular bags. The tapered cut retains heat better, but remains wide enough to accommodate more sleeping and movement areas.

Although it falls in the middle of the pack in weight, the Echo Park is still too heavy to be a viable backpacking option. The most problematic aspect of the bag, however, is its non-metallic bottom that needs to be used with a sleeping pad or mattress. The Echo Park becomes very small and warm when used alone. However, if you have a pad or layer between the bag and the ground, the Big Agnes Echo Park 20 will keep you toasty and wrapped in comfort-like comfort all night long.

What Other Camping Sleeping Bags Should You Consider?

Wondering how the Big Agnes Echo Park 20 stacks up against our other top picks? Find out from our list of the best sleeping bags for camping. And consider these other great alternatives:

REI Siesta Hooded 20 Review: Our top choice for camping sleeping bags for their warmth, spacious and comfortable interior, durable quality and design, and useful features. The loft-like Siesta dress makes it incredibly comfortable, and its wide box fit accommodates many sleeping styles.

REI HunkerDown 20 Review: A close cousin of the Siesta, the Hunkerdown has a very similar design, only with downfill instead of synthetics. Its rectangular width offers plenty of flexibility for movement and sleeping, and we love that it can be unzipped for even more flexibility.

Teton Sports Celsius XXL 0F Review: Celsius brings the comfort of Echo Park in a roomy rectangular shape for half the price. Although a few pounds heavier than the Big Agnes, the Celsius is a comfortable cold-weather option that’s perfect for car camping.