Monday Top Ten: Summer in Modesto city parks

Today marks the unofficial start of summer – no matter that the season change actually happens on June 20.

Calendar or not, everyone knows summer truly runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day; with that comes an increase in outdoor activities, both organized and spur of the moment.

It means that more and more people will hit the city’s parks for fun the valley sun, whether that be parents with youngsters in the play areas, impromptu Frisbee games on grass or families gathering at picnic areas for reunions and other celebrations.

To prepare for the season of fun in the sun, Ashley Weaver, acting manager of the Modesto Parks & Recreation Department, offers up the Top Ten things people might not know about summer in the city’s parks.

1. From just about any location in the city, you are within one half mile of a park.

2. The City of Modesto Park system includes approximately 1,100 acres of land in 76 total parks – five regional parks or trails, six community parks, 54 neighborhood parks, 11 miscellaneous parks or parklets.

3. Modesto’s first park (circa 1912), Graceada, is home of the Mancini Bowl, which hosts the summer concert series and family movie nights providing free entertainment to the community. Graceada Park is named after Grace Beard and Ada Wisecarver, the wives of the two park donors.

4. You can rent picnic areas in our larger parks for your family barbecue or special event. Most of our neighborhood parks have picnic areas which can be utilized on a first-come, first-serve basis without a fee.

5. Some of the more unique amenities in our park system include: shuffleboard, sand volleyball, disc golf, pétanque and horseshoe pits.

6. You can rent athletic fields in our larger parks for your sports leagues or tournaments. To see a complete list of the amenities by park and learn how to reserve a facility, go to www.modestogov.com/prnd.

7. We have a premier soccer complex in Modesto that is host to leagues and tournaments throughout the year. Mary E. Grogan Community Park houses a soccer complex which has seven lighted soccer fields. Three of the fields are synthetic turf.

8. You can ride your bike from the Beardbrook Park to Carpenter Road along the Tuolumne River. The Tuolumne River Regional Park is also a riparian habitat where many wildlife species live.

9. Most parks have two playgrounds, one for 2- to 5-year-old children and one for 5- to12-year-old children. Annually, we install approximately 2,500 CY of certified playground chips to replenish the playground surfacing.

10. With the help of the Adopt-a-Park program, Neighborhood Environmental Action Team (NEAT) agreements and other volunteer projects we have had over 1,500 volunteers, who have donated more than 10,000 hours so far this year to clean up the parks. Thank you to all of our volunteers.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Monday Top Ten: Summer in Modesto city parks."