Outdoor Adventures Volume Four: Mile Square Park, Fountain Valley

Destination: Mile Square Park, Fountain Valley

The price: $3 for parking in the park, $0 for parking on the street next to the park

My Economics for Dummies book said that public offerings are called "Market Failures" because if you charge people for something but it's possible to enjoy it for free (the book used fireworks as an example), people won't pay because they can "consume" it for nothing. I scientifically tested this at Mile Square, which costs $3 to get in, but there are no fences or anything surrounding it, and you can park on the streets right next to the pathway. I parked on the street and spent the afternoon consuming the park for free. The book was right.

The Journey: 4.0

The park is a couple of trafficky miles from the freeway, so it lost a point there. Also, I tried to go to the Costa Mesa Library Friends of the Library Bookstore before-hand, but it wasn't open until 1:00. So I ended up taking surface streets the whole way to the park, which took forever. I realize that's my own fault, but I'm writing this, so I get to pick the ratings.

The Hike: 4.5

The park is a square mile (thus the name). But like I'm going to walk the four mile perimeter with a one-year-old. Also, over half of it is golf courses. So I traversed the park side. It's all flat, meandering paved pathways. You can choose how much you feel like walking. Like an idiot, I decided (sort of) to walk the length of the park (one mile, of course) from the North Lake to the South Lake. I say sort of because I did not actually intend to do it. I just kept walking and thinking, "I should probably turn around now. Well, maybe I'll go a little farther" until I got to the South Lake and realized I had to walk a whole mile back. Because the paths meander, I ended up walking for an hour. Ben was not happy about that decision. But I was driving the stroller, so he got to suck it up. I deducted a half point for my lame decision.

The View: 4.0

The park is lovely. Grass fields, lots of trees, an occasional playground, and two lakes. But for the most part you could also see the adjacent busy street, which detracted a little from the serene feel. The lakes were very pretty, though.


The Extras: 4.0

Lots of picnic areas. One thing I was really impressed with was that scattered throughout the park there were many individual picnic tables with adjacent barbecues. Usually the barbecues are just at the group picnic areas (which there were also many of).

This fact gave me what I thought was a fantastic idea. Upon arriving I realized I had left my camera at home. But I was enjoying the park so much that I decided Matt, Ben and I should come back in the evening and have a barbecue picnic in the park. I could take pictures then. Apparently I suck at barbecue picnics in the park. The coal briquette thingies didn't burn right (apparently) because of the wind. So there we were, the clock ticking away, with a fairly cold barbecue, mushy turkey burgers, and an increasingly cranky Shannon (I get fussy when I'm hungry). By the time we gave up, packed up, and left, it was almost 6:30. It was almost Ben's bedtime and he hadn't had dinner yet (and did I mention that I was hungry and cranky?). So my perfect little plan ended with Carl's Jr. and Friends. Oh well. I suppose we'll try my plan later. I did, however, manage to squeeze in a few pictures of the corner of the park we had our lame barbecue in.

The dead barbecue

Also, there was an ice cream truck. For a mountain girl who has never experienced an ice cream truck (do you want to try driving a big truck full of ice cream up and down and around narrow, steep mountain roads?), that was pretty exciting.


Overall Rating: 4.0