Discovery Well Park, Huntington Beach

There is a park commemorating Huntington Beach's first oil strike. I don't know why I find this odd, but I do.

Strange origins or not, Discovery Well Park is one of Huntington Beach's more impressive pocket parks. It is a long, narrow park, stretching quite a bit further than it looks like. There's plenty of flat ground for running, tumbling, or playing various sports. There are picnic tables.

Also, there's a nice little rise to keep things from getting boring, and it's planted with a small grove of trees. I didn't notice any particularly outstanding trees of character (You know, like the one in Lake Park that always looks like it's thinking of eating the guests), but a mini-forest is not a bad substitute. Also, there's some nice palm trees growing at the edge.

The playground was impressive, too. It had a different design of playground equipment and was set up over a large mat of that nice, spongy stuff they put playgrounds on. In fact, this is one of the first playgrounds I've seen where it looks like any falls really would hit the mat, no matter what direction they were in.

It was raining the day I walked by, so all sensible critters were tucked away, out of the wet. It looks to me, though, like there wasn't anything that would make Discovery Well Park more appealing to them than any other park, so I'd guess that there are more birds and bugs there than in the neighboring suburbs, ubt not by much.