Arroyo Verde Park — Attraction in Ventura

My favorite park in Ventura because of the great hiking trails, rolling grass hills and the great playgrounds throughout.

When it comes to hiking, this park truly is a gem with trails that take you out into legitimate wilderness without really leaving the city. Hikes ranging from 1/2 mile to 3 miles are possible depending on the route you take including a variety of inclines...or lack thereof. I love doing a fairly straight forward ~2 mile route starting on the trail at the eastern most edge at the front of the park and taking left hand turns all the way out to the back. That loops around the outer edge of the park and lets you connect back to the trail that lands you back at the western edge of the front of the park.

My kids also love coming here to play on the variety of playgrounds that the city has wisely invested in. They are generally kept very clean and are well maintained.

Finally, the grass. In drought stricken California, this is not my favorite thing but investing in grassy areas where the public can come to enjoy it, share it, run on it, roll on it or ice block down it (oh yeah, that's here too!), it makes way more sense than just a green patch that never sees any action at the neighbor's house down the street. We've had birthday parties here, impromptu soccer games, party games, cross country runs, ultimate frisbee, bible studies and much more on the grass here.

Great park. Great...

Let me be clear. I like this park. On the weekends they Charge to Park here. This weekend there was some type of tournament taking place and it was packed. I asked if there was available parking and the booth attendant said there was parking available. I told the attendant if there isn't I will come back to get the money I paid for parking. There was, in fact, no parking available. When I returned to get my money back, the attendant replied that there was no refunds ( please be aware that roughly 5 minutes had past ). I explained that I paid for parking and there was none. I have no idea what he was doing but he started calling people and telling me he was going to have is co workers review all spots in the park to make sure I was telling the truth (or whatever his purposes were). He then reluctantly and angrily, as if I were bothering him by asking for my money back, told me there was a no refund sign right in front. I have zero clue what type of policies they have here but he did end up giving me my money back, but I have no clue why he was angry and why I had to insist. There wasn't parking = refund. What's...

I 've been taking my dogs here for 20 years and, hopefully, for 20 more. The park is amazing and the staff keeps it cleaner than ever. The other dog owners take responsibility for their pets very seriously and, if they don't, there's strong advise to keep the dog in line. If a dog misbehaves and it results in an injury, that owner is told to not come back. There've only been 2 bites, that I know of, where that's been the outcome. One of those owners is back again w/a different dog now. I call the weekend days, my doggies' "party" days because there are so many people that come. A few years back, we were getting almost 60 dogs, during pet hours, and it's super fun. For people w/out dogs, it's a beautiful park to walk, exercise, do trails, and have barbecues. I will keep coming as long as the park stays open. ...