Val Vista Park — Attraction in Pleasanton

a review from @amom2kidsandapark

Holy spiral slide! Val Vista Park has everything you could ever need in a park and more! This park has three play areas, two seasonal splash pads, a community garden, well-maintained sidewalks, soccer fields, group picnic sites, a skate park, an inline hockey rink, a labyrinth, and plenty of open grass. The largest and most involved playground has the HUGE spiral slide, a triple slide, and a tube spiral slide (with a plexiglass window so it doesn’t look pitch black at the beginning. There are steps, ladders (including some styles I never seen before 😱), bridges, a climbing wall, a balance beam, monkey bars, spinning circle bars, a gymnastics bar, a climbing rope web, and when your kid gets tired of the endless playground opportunities there are large cement cylinders around the outer rim. Close by is a much smaller play area with two slides (tube and straight), a ladder, and stairs. There is a small swing set with bucket only swings. Near this play area is one of the seasonal splash pads, toddler-size picnic tables, and a really neat replica mountain range that creates a great way to incorporate the water from the splash pad into a river through the hills passing down a waterfall and ending in a pond. All of this took some imagination since the water wasn’t actually on. We will have to go back when there isn’t a drought and it isn’t “fall”. Close by these two play areas is a climbing wall, bathroom, and group picnic site. A ways away is the third playground with three slides (spiral, double, bumpy), steps, ladders, bridges, and activities. There is a swing set with standard and bucket swings plus a ride-on rocking toy. Near this playground, you'll find the second splash pad, more group picnic tables, and bathrooms. Don’t miss the large soccer balls and the mosaic bench. Keep an eye out for birdhouses, squirrels, lizards, and birds (we saw a huge white egret). There is a huge parking lot from the main entrance on Johnson Dr or street parking in the neighborhood behind the park...

Brought our young kids here on this weekday morning for the first time because of the good reviews. It turned out to be the worst park experience. Some weird (at least weird, if not crazy) men out there. We saw at least three. One was taking off his pants. One was screaming and eventually came to the slide and play. The other one came up to me and asked if we use recycle bag?? It was awkward! All middle-aged men! It all happened within 10 minutes after we got there. And they acted weird near the kids playground. Not a safe environment for kids. I had to drag my kids to car and leave that place as soon as we could. If these people did have special needs, I didn’t see any care takers nearby to watch and help. Middle-aged man taking off the pants or screaming in the kids playground is too extreme for general...

I have been coming to Val Vista Park since its inception. It's a jewel of the Val Vista development with its impeccably kept green fields; "hard" areas for skaters, and nice picnic facilities for families and groups. The amenities continue to unfold with the children's play area including slides, swings and it's ever popular water features. The thought of having assigned garden patches for our local amateur "green thumbs" was a brilliant idea. Zucchini and tomatoes abound !Idont believe there has been a time when all the plots were under utilized. The explosion of colors and textures catch your eye as you continue to stroll by on your walk towards the Zen garden and the meandering...