I love nature centers and interpretive centers. Sometimes they are dusty and date back to the 70′s, but that makes me love them all the more. The little interpretive center at Clark Regional Park is no exception with its Los Coyotes Paleontology Museum inside. Our North County Parks Reporter, Lisa, recommended it to me back in November 2009:

Interpretive center has an awesome fossil collection – think La Brea Tar Pits but on a smaller scale – and it’s FREE (y’know after you pay for parking or use your OC Parks pass). They also have quarterly tours where they walk you out to an actual fossil excavation site – also for free – but there’s an age limit – not for babies and toddlers.

The outside of the interpretive center itself is gorgeous, and there’s a huge outcropping of reddish rock across the street from the park that is very visible and just adds to the beauty. The interpretive center is closed when they don’t have someone available to staff it – call ahead to make sure it’s open (714) 973-3170.

On our last visit, we finally caught it on a day it was open. We like to park in Lot 4 to play at the playground there and wind our way around the lake to the Interpretive Center.

This station (below) is especially kid-friendly with panels to open and fossils to touch.

Clark Regional Park is what I consider a “destination playground” — in fact, there are 3 playgrounds worth visiting.  It’s a peaceful spot. The Interpretive Center is a bonus, especially if  you’re teaching a fossil lesson to your kids. It adds so much to the regional park experience.

Wildlife Spotting: We saw an osprey over the playground and a turtle in the lake. A duck adopted us and followed us around the play area. Next on my list is to hike up Camel Hill (the trail was closed due to rain on our last visit). There’s lots to see if you keep your eyes open.

Hint: Don’t forget to bring your Nature Scene Investigator guide book (or get your mission online) – this is one of the NSI locations.

Learn more about Clark Regional Park on our site. Visit the official OCParks.com to find out more details and the hours.  We love OC regional parks. Go get your annual pass today!

Buena Park

Clark Regional Park might just be my favorite OC regional park. It’s in Buena Park squeezed in between La Mirada and Fullerton. The grounds are expansive, but manageable for my 4 year old. There are no less than 3 separate playgrounds and an interpretive center. We walked almost the whole park during our visit.  It was super, ultra-clean with raked sand and manicured lawns. I’m so thankful to Lisa for the recommendation. It would have taken us a while to make it to this one on our own.

Location: We drove up Interstate 5 and exited at Beach Blvd (lots of construction on the 5 around here but it didn’t affect traffic much in the middle of the day).  Drive up Beach Blvd and turn right on Rosecrans. The park entrance is on your right. If you have an OC Parks pass, you just put your card in the machine and drive on in.  Turn right when you enter the park to reach the playgrounds or left to get close to the softball diamonds and lake. When we left the park, we continued on Rosecrans until it dead-ended on Euclid. Turn right on Euclid and head toward the 91 Freeway and I-5. MAP to Clark Regional Park in Buena Park

Recommended by: Lisa (see her comments in italics)

Highlights:

• There are some really fun play areas with dinosaur theming – to go with the rich fossil history of the area. My favorite is a huge area to the right of the lake that has a bunch of sand and even some fake rock formations to play around.
• This was our favorite playground, too. A really idyllic setting with a waterfall running over the rocks into the lake, shaded picnic tables, and lots of climbing equipment. My daughter had to climb up the structure in every way possible.  LOTS of swings. It’s accessible from the first real parking lot on your left after you pass the tennis courts.
• There’s a smaller playground nearer the tennis courts that’s perfect for younger kids.  No swings.
• The third playground is an easy walk on the paved path leading behind the interpretive center.  This playground feels much more secluded near a grove of trees (Los Coyotes Grove). It sports a mostly recycled rubber play surface and its own line of swings. I liked the tree trunk style slides for climbing up and sliding down.  There’s also one of those red stand-up teeter-totters here. If you don’t want to walk — drive to the dead-end of the parking lot and park there to access this playground.
• Interpretive center has an awesome fossil collection – think La Brea Tar Pits but on a smaller scale – and it’s FREE (y’know after you pay for parking or us your OC Parks pass). They also have quarterly tours where they walk you out to an actual fossil excavation site – also for free – but there’s an age limit – not for babies and toddlers.
• Wildlife galore! There always seems to be a bunny convention going on near the softball diamonds to the left of the interpretive center – and squirrel meetings going on around the waterfall just to the left of the interpretive center.
• The outside of the interpretive center itself is gorgeous, and there’s a huge outcropping of reddish rock across the street from the park that is very visible and just adds to the beauty.
• We didn’t get to do it on our visit. But there’s a walking trail and hill behind the softball diamonds that looked like a nifty nature walk. Plus a path leading around the entire park and gate into the surrounding neighborhood which looked like fun.

Be Aware:

• Fee for parking. Check OCParks.com for info on an annual pass. I highly recommend it.  Regional parks take multiple visits to explore. I don’t ever get tired of them.
• The interpretive center is closed when they don’t have someone available to staff it – call ahead to make sure it’s open (714) 973-3170. The center was not open when we visited. And there was a note on the door saying the center will be closed on the weekends until further notice.

Checklist:

• Fee for parking
• Recycled rubber and sand play surfaces
• Restrooms outside the interpretive center bulding
• 3 playgrounds
• Tons of picnic shelters and grills (reservations can be made on the official  OCParks.com site)
• Outdoor amphitheater with fire pit (and another fire pit near the playground?)
• Lots of shade from trees, not necessarily on the playgrounds
• Fishing lakes
• Tennis courts
• Softball diamonds
• Interpretive center
• Found on page 19 of the Nature Scene Investigator (NSI) Guidebook