CA: The Ravine turned into a Park

When I was growing up our neighborhood was just above a ravine.  At the bottom of the ravine was a pretty big field that was full of nothing but dirt.  In the middle of the field there was one circular mound of dirt, that I believe had a palm tree growing out of it.  It may have been some other type of tree, but I'm thinking it was probably a palm tree because this ravine was pretty desolate.  When we first lived in the house, we used to call this little mound of dirt Crystal Island.  At that point there was some quartz rock on it and so it would sparkle as we were descending the hills to get to it.  It stopped sparkling after a couple of years.  I'm pretty sure that we had taken all of the rock by that point.

We still used to climb down into the field.  I don't think my parents liked it when we would go there.  There were probably all sorts of bugs, and the dirt down there was really soft, so our feet used to sink into it.  I remember that my shoes used to be filled with dirt every time we went there.  And then, of course, people would occasionally trip on the way down and inevitably be scratched and bruised as a result.  I remember once, on a trek to have a picnic with two friends, one friend went tumbling down most of the hillside.  She was so hurt that we couldn't move her.  I stayed with her while the other friend went for help...  Pretty sure none of our parents were happy about what we had done that day.  But we still thought it was an adventure to go there, so we kept doing it.

In elementary school a group of neighborhood kids decided to build a series of bike jumps on the plateau above the ravine.  We spent a long time compacting dirt to make these jumps... it probably took months.  It was so much fun to ride over them when it was done!  But, after a few years, someone bought the land our jumps were on and decided to build a house there.

On one side of the ravine there are cement structures for a retention pond or sewage... I'm not sure which.  But they were constructed in bowl shapes, and so we used to take our skateboards down there to ride.  Actually, I wasn't very brave, so I didn't do much riding down there... but it was fun to watch!

Then the city decided to build a bike path from the street down to the field.  This made it a lot easier to get down that hill.  I think I was almost driving by this point, but I remember being excited that it wouldn't take me as long to walk up to the shopping center that was a couple of miles from our house.   In actuality, I think I only walked there twice.

I remember them talking about how this land was designated to be a park since about middle school.  But from what I'd seen, it wasn't going to happen.  It was a great place to play though, and in recent years we have gone geocaching down the bike path and in the field with our nephews.

But, they finally built a park there.  And it's a beautiful park too.  On the same day that we had the family dinner, most of the cousins went to play at the park before bed.  As I walked into the park with my sister, I was hit by a flood of memories from long ago... things that happened between 4th and 12th grades.  I love that the ravine that I knew and enjoyed as a child is now a park that is easy for a city to enjoy.

 Braxton brought his RipStik (I think that's what it's called) which reminded me of when we used to lug our skateboards down the hill.

The kids had fun climbing the rock wall.

Charlie had fun running across the bridges, through the tunnels, and sliding.

 Brinly had fun spinning Charlie around... and then they switched.  Luckily neither got sick!

Brinly and Quinlan doing the see-saw their own way!

Brinly in motion

 

The next day, a heat wave hit that lasted for most of our stay, so we weren't able to make it back out to the park again.  (The kids were always in bed by the time it was cool enough to go out.)  I am looking forward to the next time that we are home so that we can spend more time at this park!