Local Eval: Cute little neighborhood SLO County Park right in the middle of "nowhere". I visited a…read morefew weeks ago, added this "new" entry to Yelp without any "credit" [was prompted for an immediate review & pics], and was Tardy with my Hardie review.
Hardie Park is rather cute and has both a summer use adult pool, along with a tot pool. The fees are reasonable [one day= $2 a kid/ $5 an adult & season passes are a bargain] and the schedule is on the SLO County Park website...where you can also find the plethora of other SLO County Parks, Pools, Golf Courses, Lakes, Hikes, etc...
The two Tennis courts are free, at least according to the people who were playing there.
In front of the pool is a interesting sculpture dedicated to two local Indian tribes [see pics].
On the other side of the street, is a large well groomed grassy area, where there are ample playgrounds for tots. The county wisely used what appears to be ground-up tires/rubber for safety.
There is a large covered picnic table area with a huge BBQ for groups. In the overhead structure, there are controls for lights & even an AC outlet. One likely needs to reserve and pay for use on the SLO County website.
Just behind this is a lazy serene creek, which is pleasant. The banks are deceptively muddy and slippery, which I found out the hard way! I wanted a water/mud sample to test under my home microscope system.
As my wife yelled at me not to go down that way, that was the way I went...only to regret it, as one sneaker got wet, as I slipped. It took me a bit to extract myself, as I ran nowhere fast.
My wife joked that I looked like a mouse running on one of those wheels in their cage!
Somehow, I did not fall. Later I had my wife grab me a water sample. Since the creek looked to be only about 6 inches deep, it would typically only be messy for an adult...unless you twisted an ankle or worse!
Apparently, since I did not learn my lesson about creek banks, I repeated this stupidity, the very next day with AG Creek, where I also slipped & grabbed a huge Stinging Nettle branch with both hands. MUCHO-Ouch!
In any case, if an old fool like me can mess up with creeks, you can imagine what a mess kids can get into. My New Balance sneakers were soaked with tons of mud, while I had a pair of waterproof boots in the trunk. I can be quite a moron!
In any case, this is a rather pleasant "unknown" county park in SLO County, that also happens to be right next to a public library. You then can grab some eats from town, a book to read, and then watch your kid[s] use up some of their boundless energy, swimming. The surrounding town is quiet, has humble accommodations, and marginal eats...but it is a good base of operations for points north, south, or east. Both charming Cambria and Morro Bay/Baywood/Los Osos are just a few miles away, and are filled with lots to explore.
Since a number of the SLO County Parks do have summer daily use pools, it is a great feature for kids. In our area, only a few health clubs have decent pools, and only an expensive one has a nice outdoor Olympic sized pool [e.g. Avila Club]. So if you have visiting relatives with kids, who are pestering you to swim, and you know that they can get hypothermia from the Ocean, then these parks may be a god send for some. While the SLO County Pools are spread out, it may give you a great excuse to sight see, as you check out the area.
If you need a relatively safe sheltered beach, there are parts of Avila Beach that have little wave action, lots of sand for a stroll, but the water is still icy cold. Avila is the most kid friendly beach.
Ironically, even though I made the first "business" addition to Yelp, someone else apparently beat me to the first review [a non-local brief review seemingly targeted to "beat me" to the obviously "coveted" "First-to-review" title]. It was rather annoying, after I took considerably more time to research, explore, & take many pictures of this cute park...but no matter... as a local with tons of time on my hands, one of my new hobbies is to check out the plethora of the many County or local Parks, Attractions, Farmers Markets, in SLO county & beyond.
My additional beef with the multitudes of non-local "tourist" brief reviews, is that many either over-glorify, or overly-trash places, that they may visit once, and typically lack a comparative/historical local context. You cannot expect this rural area to compete with urban areas. While it is a relatively "wealthy" area, with pricey housing, most things have to be trucked in, from the ports of Long Beach, or from the SF Bay area. There are no major ports in this area, since the demise of this area's big oil rigs & refineries eons ago. Avila Pier had a railroad that once brought oil out to the port from SLO [Tank Farm] & was a polluting eyesore. The entire town of Avila was dug up to remove many feet of oil soaked sand decades ago!