Not your traditional park this park is a nature park, it has two small walking trails on the top…read morelevel and big trails leading to the bottom level where the playground area is, the playground has a really cool kid suspension bridge. There are no bathrooms and you can't access the park in a wheel chair or stroller from Estrella dr it's only accessible through sierra madre. The parking lot is very small not meant to host large crowds. The little library is located on the top level off Estrella

This is a fairly new park in Spring Valley at the base of Mount Helix. The park is just over six…read moreand a half acres. It was built into the surrounding land escape so as not to disturb the natural native land escape. In addition to the surrounding native plants, drought tolerant trees have been added for shade and that nice natural park appeal. There's a durable play area for children and young adults made from natural elements such as wood and rock. When I visited, the park did need some TLC via some weeding and clean up, but as I was leaving, a county worker was arriving and he stated he was there to evaluate the park's needs. The park has a small parking lot on Estrella with an available charging station. The park can also be accessed, on foot, from North Bonita and Sierra Madre Road. Oh yes, there's a unique suspension bridge at the park and picnic tables, trash cans, but no restrooms.

We enjoy this renovated town park a few times a month or more. It's kept up, tidy & has roses &…read moreJacaranda Trees caressing the upper portion. Large Children's Playground with shaded seating for caregivers. Scoutie, my ever present fur babe , loves the sniffing potential here. H/Cap & ample parking, two restrooms near water fountain. Huge Tennis Courts past the creative playground. Appreciate this humble, pretty neighborhood park.

This park has plenty of parking, clean restrooms, gazebos, walking trails and 4 pickleball court…read morethat are lit up at night, the community is great and the park is always kept clean. We love playing pickleball here

No bathroom door. I will never come back Big green area for…read moredogs. But not for kids This playground is only for small kids

This park and playground combo is amazing! Has its own parking lot including handicapped parking…read more Rocks, shady trees, picnic tables, grills, and an awesome playground with swings, slides, and rides. What more do you want in a park?! Plenty of room for dogs to run, after 6 PM of course, and hills to climb and large river rocks to play on. This park is 20 minutes from my house but well worth the drive. It's super peaceful and lots of nice neighborhood people to chat with. Feels very safe. Good vibes!

Rolled into the La Mesita Park not knowing where the pickleball courts were and ended up at Jr Seau…read moreSports Complex up the hill. Went back to the park proper, made a left towards YMCA and recognized the blue, green painted courts below eye level parallel to the freeway. Almost went to Big Rock in Santee this morning which has eight dedicated pickleball courts but more players. La Mesita on the other hand, has the same number of pickleball courts, four of which are newly resurfaced. They have a smaller crowd which means shorter wait times, some good shade, but adds four miles to my drive - a small price to pay to feed my quasi-addiction. It only took 2.5 hours to meet my minimum daily game quota of four challenging matches and I didn't encounter any aggro ball smashers. This is the ninth East County pickleball venue I have played at and can easily become one of my favorites.

Came to La Mesita to play some pickleball during the holidays! The courts were semi full, with two…read morecourts in the back free. The people were very friendly and we had a lot of fun games. The parking was a bit of a struggle with the YMCA still in session. Other than parking, it is a great place to stop by and play a few games while enjoying the scenery!!

Large park in a wonderful community. With lots of playground equipment, basketball courts and…read morebaseball/softball field, etc. surrounded by beautiful large pine trees that offer the feeling of being surrounded by nature in a forest. Great place to explore and collect pine cones, leaves, sticks, etc.

My family and I had a great time here during some playground explorations…read more The park is in a residential area and it gives it a great welcoming feel. There wasn't a parking lot but there is plenty of street parking and I had no problem finding a spot to park right across from the playground. The street it is on was pretty slow so we had no issues or worries about crossing the street but we also could have parked on the other side if we did. The park is pretty sizable. There is a great amount of grass you can picnic on, hang out at, play, whatever you decide. There is also basketball courts to ply on and they aren't right on top of other areas so you really can play and not have any worries. There is also a playground that has both a toddler area and a big kid area. There are also some picnic tables built in near the playground area. While we ran around the grass and basketball area a bit, the main reason for our visit was for the playground. I loved how big the toddler play structure was. It gave a lot of space for my kids to run around and not be on top of other kids. There were also some really great slide options on this structure. We also played on the big kid structure which was a great combo of climbing and normal structures. My toddler stayed on the half that he could easily handle and skipped the climbing. The slides on this structure were awesome and really fast. There were no problems with him playing with the big kids either. There are also a few random playground pieces like the swings, some game areas, and monkey bars. The playground bottom is wood chips which is incredibly common but not my favorite for playgrounds. It is hard to clean up, it often pokes and hurts us at some point as well, and not that great when you fall on it. There are no bathrooms here which is okay for us now but I will have to remember for once we start potty training. The last negative to me is the lack of extra shade on the playground equipment. There are some great trees that offer shade and the playground structures have tops on a couple of the areas but those tops are more decorative than function and it is currently hot and sunny out! I wished my kids had been in more shade and it made the slides really hot. Overall, we had a lot of fun here and we know we will be back but the lack of shade is big for us and our fair skinned kids so we will wait for fall/winter to come back when we do t need the shade as much.

This park kind of summarizes the beauty of Yelp for me. You'll see that almost each review has a…read moredifferent experience, some constants, different loves, and different hates for this place. On that note, here's mine! Parking is a non issue for me, I walk, but reading other reviews it seems the apartment complex inserted a whole new challenge for people trying to park with tenant's cars lining the streets. The homeless hanging out is something that I've certainly seen but I've never exchanged a word or even a wave with any of them. They kind of keep to themselves and I do my thing, nothing threatening and they have never expressed any interest in being around anyone else at the park, just themselves, at least when I've been there. Basketball! As someone who despises working out basketball is something I enjoy. Do I play the kids? Hell no! They'd whip my ass in five seconds and I avoid busy times when I'm able to shoot and embarrass myself in peace. On the weekends you can hear the kids playing ball and families cheering along. I like that, it's great for the neighborhood and from what I can tell it's become a better park recently. For that, I'm grateful!

Great park for my 2 & 4 year old!! We frequent parks all the time. This is a hidden gem!read more

This is a very nice park in East County San Diego that I discovered. It offers some very nice…read moreamenities, excluding a public restroom. It offers a terrific well maintained large grass area, four water stations for humans and pets, doggy poop bags, picnic tables, benches, and exercise stations which to my surprise looked pretty involved and of very good quality. There's a nice path available for walking. The landscaping is beautiful. It was what I most loved about this county park. The park is heavily spotted with mature and young trees, flowering plants and shrubs, and native bushes and California native oak trees as well. The grass area is large enough for many types of games. Parking is along the street adjacent to the street. Great park.

This is a surprising hidden gem!…read more - lots of parking - not terribly busy - restrooms and trashcans on site - extensive trail options - dog friendly - horseback trails - kid/family friendly - good views - shaded picnic-friendly areas I came here with my dog around 11 on a Sunday. It is pretty warm out this way, so definitely more of a winter/early spring/late fall location. There's NICE restrooms on site. The initial trail area has lots of flat and shaded regions for picnics or just sitting to enjoy nature. Multiple trash receptacles. I even saw a sign for drinking water (although I didn't look further into this so I can't confirm if there actually is). There are TONS of trail options and spinoffs. Nearly all trails marked and those listed on the all trails map appear to be well maintained. This is not solely an out and back or loop trail though. I would definitely recommend downloading the map in advance so you don't get lost as directions are not clearly marked once on the trail. It does also appear that they are building some sort of community or information structure. At the main trail section (where all the oak trees and flat area for picnics are) there is also a guided storybook trail for kids, where every 50-100 feet there is a wooden box with a numbered page from a Dr Seuss book to help keep kids engaged and moving along the trail. Views are very pretty, especially if you make the hike up towards the water tower. I would consider this trail moderately busy. Between 11:15 when we started and 12:15 when we ended, we encountered ~6 groups/families of hikers, one person on horseback, and a couple of people with dogs. All dogs were leashed. Once we got out to the main section/incline of the hike though, we encountered far fewer people. All in all, a beautiful spot and I would highly recommend this hike if you're looking for a casual walk or a family nature day!

A fairy tale-like space. We started a hike at the base of the mountain near the Walmart parking…read morelot and stopped here before the summit. There is a small "Hansel and Gretel" house to explore and rocks to scramble. If you decide to hike you get a nice overlook of Escondido.