Newland Park, Huntington Beach

Newland Park is another nice little pocket park. It has what I suspect is a slightly older model of the red-and-yellow play area (more metal), plus a really nice wooden bridge and walkway. I know that when I was a kid, the bridge would have become all sorts of grand imaginary places, and my adult self still enjoyed walking across it while I admired the curve of the path.

There was also a good-sized flat field where kids (from the school next door?) were practicing soccer, and plenty of nice trees. There were the usual suspects and, as I'm starting to see more and more, it looked like there were at least three plantings. I do love the way the city park department keeps the sizes and ages of the trees different. It makes for a much more appealing park.

Wardlow Park Trees

Whatever its other limitations, Wardlow Park has a lovely lot of trees.

Wardlow Park, Huntington Beach

Wardlow Park is both a well-tended Huntington Beach park and a somewhat scraggly, unloved, leftover Fountain Valley school property. There is no clear fence, so the boundaries are only apparent when one looks at the ground and notes the beginning of the sprayed, dying weeds.

And, with no clear boundary, they look like one unit, so I treated as one on my visit (I did not find out about the Fountain Valley part until later). So: The front side is mostly a nice, smooth green lawn with just one little hillock near Magnolia. There is also a good portion devoted to baseball diamonds which is both well-tended and confusingly labeled as school property, so I do not actually know who owns which or why. The articles I ran across in a web search when I was trying to clear things up were not entirely helpful, either: Fountain Valley sold at least some school property to Huntington Beach and that became part of Wardlow Park. I can't tell whether or not they sold all the property, so I don't know how the unloved part is categorized.

Anyway, the Wardlow Park that I saw is a long stretch of property along Magnolia and Adams that extends back quite a distance. The first part has the baseball diamonds and also a nice, sandy playground (standard yellow and red climber) with swings and lots of room to play.

It also, unusually, has a drinking fountain, but I wouldn't count on it as a source of water. When I was there, the fountain had been stopped up and looked distinctly gross. Also, there was a brown widow web on the underside of the faucet with four egg sacs. This really isn't a problem, in a lot of ways, since widow and drinkers are unlikely to come into contact, but, despite my general love of spiders, it did contribute to the "Ick!" factor.

The restrooms may or may not have been connected to the park and may or may not have been open; they were sort of "eh" looking so I got all picky and finicky and didn't try the doors. Sorry, folks. It happens.

They were in the unloved area, near the school, in a place where the grass is mowed and herbicide occasionally applied, but where the maintenance has clearly been dialed down to near-minimal. There's a sad-looking basketball court back there, and the day I visited, several someones had clearly spent quite some time amusing themselves by breaking glass on the asphalt. No one had been by to sweep or to clear up the trash accumulated in the leftover (soccer? Look, I don't do sports) goal nearby. There was a really attractive tree back there, but someone had been draping stuff in it, and the school yard had been turned into a makeshift dog park (Can't blame anyone there. What else is it being used for?)

The nice, clear, pretty green of Wardlow Park proper.

The first look at the park stretching back and back.

A phoebe keeping an eye on things.

The old, boarded-up school, looking very sad and out of place.

The park department generally takes very good care of things, so I wonder who is meant to be looking after this?

Moffett Park, Huntington Beach

Moffett Park(1), on the wonderfully named Meander Lane, is a nice little pocket park next to a school. That means that, right after school gets out, it's full of kids and parents enjoying the chance to rest after a busy day.

On the other hand, it stretches back quite a bit further than I'd have expected, so even after school, there was a nice, shady corner near the wall suitable for quiet contemplation of the view and sitting down to take notes on the park in general.

And, yes, it was shady. There are plenty of tall, well-grown trees in the park. Some of them even have flowers, which may account for the fact that there were plenty of bugs and birds. Hummingbirds and butterflies both seemed to appreciate the chance to snack.

In addition to the jacarandas, Moffett park had a lot of those lovely, knobby trees that grow strange and wonderful trunks (I have got to get the names for some of these plants!), plus some of those twisty-trunk conifers, so it scores high on my trees-of-character scale.

The park is also made interesting by not being completely level. There are several little hillocks that keep it visually interesting and also help separate one section from another without forming absolute barriers. All in all, one of the better parks I've visited so far(2).

Drinking fountains: No. Restrooms: Does a fenced-and-locked port-a-potty count? That was weird. I mean, who builds a port-a-potty-sized fence? And why? Surely the point of the things is that they are portable?

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(1)Yes, I do watch too much Doctor Who. I keep wanting to spell it Moffat and thinking that is a much better name.
(2) I am pretty sure I've said this before, but just in case: All parks are good parks. Any park creates a zone of good-ness just by existing. However, ones that is established, there are shades of greatness, and Moffett is higher up on the scale than some.

McCallen Park, Huntington Beach

McCallen Park is both a park and the headquarters of the Boys & Girls Club of Huntington Beach(about which I know zilch). It's pretty much a pocket park, a nice bit of green tucked between streets. By the way, both appearance and the website linked above indicate that that tempting parking lot is for the club, not for people visiting the park, so streetside it is, if you're driving.
It looks like there's a setup for soccer, and there are a couple of picnic tables, though those are unusually beat up. I'm not sure I'd want to set food on them, or sit on the benches, without a certain amount of extra covering. The phoebes like them, though. In general, phoebes seem to find picnic tables to be useful for bug-watching. I've seen them on bench or table in several parks now. I suppose they do provide a clear, branch-free view and height at the same time.

There is a playground, but it is behind a fence. The gate was open and the walkway free and clear when I went through, but I have no idea how normal this is or is not.

Rstrooms? No. Water fountain: Likewise, no. Possibly people coming for the Boys & Girls club have access to both (I'd be surprised if they didn't, given that there's a whole building there), but it doesn't look like people just walking through do (Then again, I've never actually tried going through those impressive doors)

Discovery Well Park Tress

I decided the trees in the Discovery Well Park deserved their own entry.

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.

Worthy Park, Huntington Beach

I had thought Worthy Park a small park. The bit that shows by the street looks like an afterthought bit of green, added to rest the eyes but not much for visiting. It proved deceptive, however, as the park actually extends back quite a way.

In addition to that little pocket area by the streets with the picnic tables, there is a playground area for the kids, racquetball courts, baseball diamonds, and some other sports-like fields.


The playground equipment is the standard red-and-yellow model, or rather, models: One for the little kids, one for the older ones. Plus, there are swings.

There were, as I'm beginning to think normal (and good), plenty of trees--at least three kinds planted at at least two different times, plus a rather forlorn looking sapling all on its lonesome. I like the way Huntington Beach does trees: They seldom seem to go for the popsicle-stick  model, but instead allow the trees to spread and twist a bit. It's much more interesting.

The good news is that the picnic tables in the park are actually in the shade. The bad news is, the park is at the intersection of Main and 17th, so your view is going to be less "bluebirds and butterflies" and more "SUV's and minivans." At least you'll be comfortable while you have it.

You might spot a squirrel or two while you're dining, and maybe a few small flying things, though I scuffd up fewer than I expected of those. Maybe they didn't like the fact that the ground was sopping wet?

Bring your own water. There's no fountain. On the other hand, there don't seem to be any restrooms, either, unless you count a very old, smelly port-a-potty that will probably be gone by the next visit.

Another Look at Bartlett Park, Huntington Beach

I can't decide if Bartlett Park is the ugliest beautiful park or the most beautiful ugly park in the neighborhood.

Perry Park, Huntington Beach

Perry Park is one of the first parks I visited as part of my recent decision to see just how many of Huntington Beach's 71 s (give or take) parks I can reach.

It is a decent-sized park tucked in next to an elementary school, an example of what I'm starting to think of as a "typical pocket park."

It's got a good selection of trees, even one, nice, central, twisty character tree (there's even a bench, of sorts, around it). There are at least five kinds of trees of different sizes (I'm starting to think of them as "the usual suspects; maybe one of these days I should try calling the park department again to find out just exactly what they are called), so there are plenty of places for the eye to rest and the view doesn't get monotonous.

Also, some of the trees had really great "toes," so I'd give Perry Park a high mark on the "trees with character" section, if I were giving marks.


The critter count was actually slightly higher than average. Not way up there--I wouldn't visit Perry to watch birds, for example, but I scuffed up plenty of small moths and flying creatures as I walked, by which unscientific method I'd say the park has more small life than the average area around it, and more than many of the other pocket parks, though that may not be entirely fair to them as I think I gave Perry's small life more attention than I gave, say Drew. There were some interesting gnats, spiders, ants--enough to keep a kid (or me) busy, but no special concentration, and, at least on that day, no dragonflies or larger butterflies.

I saw few non-bugs, though a squirrel in the nearby neighborhood makes me think they probably do show up.

As is fairly usual, the landscaping isn't particularly critter-friendly. The only available water was a large puddle due to recent rain, and there were no ragged edges for anything to hide in or ripening grass (or other greenery) for them to eat.

Picnic tables: Yes, there are picnic tables. I'd be surprised if the shade ever hits either of them, though (I note the website claims one is "in partial shade," so maybe sometimes a few leaves worth reaches it).


Bathrooms: No.

Water fountains: No.This is probably just as well, since the parks that have had water fountains haven't really had water fountains I'd drink from.

Playground Equipment: Perry Park has the standard setup with the yellow slide and all. Also swings for both tots and older kids.

Sports stuff: They do have soccer goals set up. There were no nets, but I'm no expert on this. You may have to ask ahead of time or something.

Parking: Streetside.

Worth visiting for its own sake? Not unless you're a park aficionado. It's great for the school kids and nice for the neighborhood, but there's nothing that makes this park stand out among parks.

Harriett M. Wieder Regional Park, Huntington Beach

I've been wanting to visit the Harriett M. Wieder Regional Park for a while now. It's four acres of pathways with a view over Bolsa Chica and it will, ultimately, connect to the Bolsa Chica State Beach. How awesome is that?

What with one thing and another, I didn't make it until this weekend. Not, perhaps, the best time to visit since it was raining steadily for a good part of the day and had rained all night, making the paths unsuitable for walking (sliding down, maybe; that might have worked).


Clearly, I need to make another visit because, quibbles about the weather aside, the park looks very promising. I enjoy parks that allow for bird and bug watching, and there looks to be plenty of habitat. Even in the rain, there were a lot of sparrows out by the side of the road. With only half a mile of trail (as yet), it's not going to turn into a favorite exercise spot, but as a place to visit and watch the wildlife, it may well be worth paying attention to. Also, I think I'd like to see the view under more propitious circumstances. I mean, it was nice, in a gloomy, rain-soaked sort of way, but it takes sun to really bring out the sparkle.


I have to say, the playground does look good, too. It's unique among the OC playgrounds (at least, the ones I've seen so far), and both the older and younger kids side have a lot of areas for climbing, sliding, and swinging. Actually, kids could play on this particular playground even in the rain (if their mothers didn't mind them getting wet, that is) because it is paved with that lovely, bouncy stuff  ("rubberizing surface" according to the OC Parks website) that I wish would show up more on adult exercise surfaces, like sidewalks.


Oh, and there is plenty of parking. At least, it was nearly empty the day I was there, but given the park's slightly out of the way location, I doubt it's ever packed. It may eventually link up with the Bolsa Chica State Beach, but it hasn't done so now, and even then, it will be a bit far for the surfers to cart their boards all the way from the parking lot to the beach.

There are plenty of nice trees, too, including a few that, oddly, have plastic sprinklers running right up to their bases.