Refugio Valley Park

The lake smelled pretty bad this time we came for a visit, but the place is still worthy of walks in the park with the kids or pets. The scenery is still nice… took the time to take some nice pictures of the landscape.

I love bringing my toddler here! There’s a large open space that can be used for endless activities! Two playgrounds, one for little tykes and a «big kid» park! There’s a large pond with many hungry ducks eager to eat whatever is being thrown over the fence! It’s close to McDonald’s and other restaurants and Lucky’s is right there! Great spot!!!

One of my favorite parks!
Very spacious, perfect for bbqs, picnics, duck watching, reading on the grass
It’s a great place to have a date, bring kids to the playground, or host an event, or bring your pets!

Great little park with a couple of cool features. There’s a «band stand» that over looks the pond. I could easily see this being used for wedding nuptials. The play area is child safe/​friendly. Lots of green area and pic-​nic tables. It’s a great little nook tucked away in Hercules.

I simply love this park, it has water works in the pond and a gazebo, ducks and geese, a great play area for kids as well as plenty of BBQ pits, I love coming to the park to power walk it has a great walking trail, the park has plenty of grassy areas, there is plenty of parking as well. This park is always clean and well maintained!

Nice open field for throwing the football or running around. BBQ area, play toy area but with no swings, and a water area with a fountain and a ton of ducks/​geese. Good place to take a walk and let the kid run around but could be better.

This park is a great place to bring your kids. There’s a big grassy area, playgrounds for both kids (big and small). I also love that there is a parking lot. This is a great place to have a picnic or BBQ with family and friends. I am a fan!

Have been taking my daughter here since she was a baby. Nice area to walk. Has a decent play ground for both toddlers and big kids. My favorite part is the duck pond. You can keep the ducks and enjoy day. Also has a great walking trail which will take you around the entire pond.

My son loves feeding the ducks and playing on the structures here. Having grown up in good ol’ Herc, I remember when my brother and I used to bring cardboard to slide down the big concrete slide which is now boarded up. The park is pretty spacious and is a great place to have bbq’s and parties. We had our son’s first birthday party here and it was fun. The only drawbacks are:
1. No alcohol allowed (which for my family was really tough)
2. No jumpers allowed
I remember having my 12^th birthday at this park and there was both alcohol and a jumpy castle. There must have been some kind of accident that caused the city to enforce these new rules. All in all, still a great park.

This park is cute little park located in Hercules across from the tennis courts. There is a large pond with a water sprout in the middle and ducks can always be found there. There is a large field grass area and a large play ground area for kids of all ages. The park overall is a great park. Always kept clean and for the most part kids and their parents can be found here, some times dogs too. The only thing is that, like any other park this place can get busy during nice days and weekends. There is a parking lot so it’s not the worst parking but the parking lot is small so if there is a lot of people parking can sometimes be a hassle. There are benches and picnic tables to have a birthday party on the weekends or a nice meal on a nice day. I haven’t been here in awhile and can’t remember if there is a bathroom or not. If not, that definitely needs to be put in, if there is one, I hope it’s clean! Cute little park and definitely recommend checking it out!

I love this park it’s clean dwn the street from my home all in all a very beautiful park where kids can play & you can get your walk on.

Come here mostly to park and walk the trail along Refugio Valley rd. past the high school and back. Its a nice trail to walk. You have your bicyclist, runners, and walkers such as I. Can’t forget our 2 legged friends. The trail is pet friendly with trashcans and poop bags along the way. The park always has something going on during the weekend. Parties, fundraiser, community awareness booths. I like to bring my nieces and nephews here to the park to play. The tress keep the play area very well shaded. Then we go feed the ducks.

It’s a nice little park to come to enjoy a few hours in the sun. We came and brought some white bread in order to feed the ducks in the pond in the park. It was pretty cool and they are always hungry so it’s nice to bring the kids and there are bars around a portion of the lake so they don’t fall in. We also flew some kites while we were there and there is a decent sized open grass field to do so as well. Some play structures for your children and you can even take a nice stroll around the pond or down the walking path that goes down Refugio Valley Rd. All in all a nice park that is good for a nice day. Also there is an ice cream truck that regularly solicits near the park so that’s nice to have an option like that every now and then. I don’t see the ice cream truck around my neighborhood nearly as much as I used to as a kid. Little nostalgia is associated with that. I came here with my girlfriend (we’re college grads in our 20s) and we still had fun here. Nice way to wind down and enjoy the nice day. Sometimes you just need that.

Refugio Valley Park is a nice park for everyone! There’s about 2 big playgrounds that the kids will really enjoy also there’s a big pond that have ducks, geese, and tide pols! There are lots of trees in this park so there is a plenty of shade for those hot summer days and also for parties… Talking about parties this park is known for having big parties and BBQ’s! So sometimes the park can get crowded depending on what area your in. This park is great for exercising I see lots of people working out and riding there bicycles… I have once rode my bicycle with my dad once at this park and it was just so beautiful and there’s also like secret paths to bridges and stuff it’s just beautiful! THIS TIP IS GREAT FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO WORK OUT: So if you walk further down the path on Refugio Valley Road there will be a nice long path that leads you all the way where the circle is which is PAST the middle/​high school and the community center so yes it is a LONG path… But once your walking the path there will be exercise benches and there’s little signs on what kind of different exercises or techniques that you can do with those benches and there all very different! But be sure not to walk this path during the weekday around 1 – 3 because that’s when the middle/​high school gets out and this is the path that some of the kids walk home to.

Great little park for walking the dogs or grilling a Sunday afternoon lunch with the family. Nice lake with a fountain. Restroom facilities are available and a nice playground for the kids. Nice place to park with easy access on to the walking trails that encompass the park and continue down the street.

Grew up at this park. Nice place to have your BBQ and picnics. A lot of grassy areas to play football, volleyball or even softball. I just recommend you get their early to claim your spot.
Lucky’s is right across the way, with subway, McDonalds, and my favorite filipino spot, Cabalen. So grab your grub there and bring it over.
Its also more known for the playground, especially the slide where you go down on, on cardboard paper. Good memories there, but the playground is more meant for toddlers to 12 year olds. Other than that, if you have older kids, they may get bored. Make sure to have something fun for them.
I do admit, I did play with a few kids that day and literally all the adults looked at me and thought I was whacked. But it was soooo much fun. Come on, crawling thru a hamster tube, dog pile on the slide then hide and seek, I couldn’t help letting my inner child out. Plus I got my cardio done for the day. Mucho accomplished.
But last but not least, besides a nice walking path around the lake. Watch out for the geese. I feed the ducks there from time to time, but those damn geese. They chased after me and even bit my ass for not feeding them fast enough. Guess they don’t know what sharing is.

During my visit to the Boyfriend’s hometown, we drove by this little park. What caught my attention was the dome shape thing. I guess the Boyfriend saw my reaction when I caught a glance at that dome thing, so the next day he took me to the park.
The day was cool and sunny so it set up for our visit quite perfectly =]
FYI. There are a lot of ducks and geeses that swim, walk and hang out here. Not sure why, maybe because people tend to feed them when they’re there BBQing and having birthday parties.
However, that doesn’t sour the spot. I like it. I only wish I brought my DSLR to take some high quality photos but I didn’t want to bother the Boyfriend to drive back and forth so I just used my phone and my smaller Canon camera.
I think the area can clean up the graffiti a bit and a little trash picking upper would suffice the park a bit. Other than that, I think it’s a pretty cute park.

This park deserves a legitimate 5 stars. It may not always look nice, but when it DOES get cleaned, it’s a really pleasant place to walk around (of course when it’s not clean, there’s duck/​bird poop everywhere).
I’ve lived in Hercules for most of my life.
I give this park 5 stars because I know what it’s capable of, what it had, what it no longer has, and what it could be in the future. There used to be annual fishing events where a bunch of trout or some other type of fish were dumped into the water and everyone went fishing! At a park! That’s pretty amazing.
Then there’s the cardboard slide that you went down sitting on a piece of cardboard, which was also very fun.
There used to be a nice pair of swings as well, but that was taken down and replaced by a kiddie play structure.
I also agree with some reviews that there are a lot of spider webs on the play structures, but that’s not the park’s fault. The place really IS poorly unsupervised and has a lack of staff there to monitor anything or even to pick up trash
I believe that if the city had more money, the park would definitely be maintained better. They did pave the pathways in the park so it’s smooth, compared to the 90’s where it was really rocky and you could only bike or roller blade with it being really bumpy.
There were a lot more ducks before than there are now. The pond mainly has seagulls pretending to be ducks. which I find both sad and funny. There’s the Hercules Cultural Festival as well, but I think it got canceled too.
Despite the incoherence and chronology of my review, I believe that this park is a 5. Sure there are other nice parks out there, but for the city of Hercules, this is pretty good.

Love the ducks.
Not that our City has the money, but the tot lot is in desperate need of updating. The play structure gets such little use there’s actually spider webs in certain areas. Crazy!
Great place for a walk or an easy bike ride with children.

I’ve been coming to Refugio Valley park since I was kid and every time I go new memories are made. The park itself is a huge park were you can have Bbq’s, parties, festivals, run/​walk, play or a place to chill. The park is a landmark for the city of Hercules. The park consists of two play grounds and a large pond that has ducks and tad pols that live there.
Refugio park is really clean, I usually run along the path they have all the way down to the High school or down to Mandalay area. It’s only a 3.5 mile run total but great for exercise. Along the path there are also stops and tips for exercise for stretching. The people of Hercules are very active of using the walk way/​bike path for walking their dogs or just for a stroll with the kids.
This past weekend was the Cultural Festival for the city of Hercules. At the cultural festival, a lot of the community comes from different backgrounds. Perfect weather for the festival as the temperature was in the high 80’s. There are several booths set up advertising there own ethnic background. For example the different food stands they have such as Filipino food, Spanish food, BBQ, Thai, Indian and so much more. On the other side of the park there was a petting zoo for the kids and rides.
There was entertainment too such as a magician who performed all his tricks/​stunts, a karate school who performed martial arts, the high school cheerleaders, live bands, educational information from the police department, demonstrations, and of course my Halau who performs every year. Great way to spend time with the family.