Riverway Sports Park — Attraction in Visalia

Tons of space. The splash pad is great for kids in the summer( its like a circular area about 10ft radius, so that means 20 feet from edge to opposite edge of the circle) . Its got jets that spray water up to 8 feet embedded in the ground recirculating water that drains into grates. Its got many many big soccer fields. Prettier good playgrounds too exept the condemned fenced off one. There is no vending there so bring everything you will need. The bathrooms are pretty messed up and gross. You might see small group of homeless over at one of the gazebos or lying in grass near it. But they will specifically make a point not to engage you or interact, they wont be asking you for change or having arguments or anything, if there was any of them that might be a risk to kids, the others would have made a point to make a mess out of the guy and if he lived he certainly wouldn't be at that park. The out of service playground was the coolest one so that's why 4 stars

Ohh. The above is all based on day-time hours. At night-time it can be a little less family oriented. You might get a few people wandering in the dark being weird and an increase of homeless sleeping here and there but what you need to be on guard for are the 20something year old goofballs that park there and have kickbacks and get drunk and stupid. Occasionally it results in someone getting mildly beat up or a little bit shot on rare occasions. Its more family based...

This park like the city of Visalia is a beautiful place, BUT the people totally trash it. Poor (mostly minority) kids play with garbage at the splash pad (empty, used water bottles, used Styrofoam cups) and leave the trash and food everywhere when they are done, even though there a trash cans everywhere. There was even a diaper, poofy and full of water left right on a bench one time. Terrible. I once saw a kid making himself vomit in the bushes trying to empress his friends (disturbing, disgusting) and many other nasty things. Trash everywhere, I finally starting taking my kids to other splash pads out of town. And the homeless are always lurking, its awful. I don't know what is wrong with people in this area, but it feeling more and more like a third world county. Oh, and we tried to go yesterday and the splash pad is close for maintenance because of all the trash and misuse from kids picking the material off of the splash pad and it clogging up the drain. NOT GOING...

This place is a cool park but has gone downhill. During the spring, the fields are full every weekend for soccer which makes it crowded if you are there just to play. There are I think three or four different play structure areas and a water feature, that seems to be off or broken most of the time recently.

The bathrooms are getting used and trashed by the homeless so they aren’t all always open during the week. While there seems to always be some open, and they are located on both sides of the park, I have seen too many non-homeless kids and adults using the play structures as a place to relieve themselves which is a big turn off.

For big events and games, this place is great. It’s a big area, parking can be rough, and I think the fields could be marked better. It’s a pain looking for the right number when you are playing a game. The baseball area at the newer end of the...