San Diego County Parks by Ellen L. Sweet

Author:Ellen L. Sweet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: unknown
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Five

REGIONAL PARKS

A regional park serves a large geographical area with both passive and active recreational opportunities. Passive recreational activities, such as hiking and observing wildlife, are self-generated and can occur in minimally developed, environmentally sensitive areas. Active recreation—playing sports, for example—requires significant infrastructure for organized activities or events. Because this demands considerable space, regional parks are often large—200 acres is an approximate minimum size. DPR has offered the diverse recreation and higher acreage that are necessary to meet different regions’ recreational needs for decades. In 2016, the County of San Diego parks system contained 19 regional parks; this chapter highlights the histories of five of them.

Felicita County Park, San Dieguito County Park, Otay Lakes County Park, Otay Valley Regional Park, and Tijuana River Valley Regional Park hold among them land that is both beatific and popular. On the Escondido locality that would become Felicita, an 1892 newspaper conjectured, “It is capable of being made an earthly paradise.” A budget statement from 1988 noted that San Dieguito was “the busiest and highest-revenue-producing picnic park in the County [system]” and one that had its reservable areas fully booked a year in advance. At a deed-transfer ceremony for Otay Lakes, a speaker emphasized the intent to differentiate it “from the typical urban community park” by making it “a place that people can escape to.” Otay itself was described as a wonderland where “the ocean’s raw winds are melted into delightful zephyrs.” Finally, Tijuana River Valley, just north of the Mexican border, was recognized as “one of the most important birding areas in the United States.” Though many of DPR’s regional parks are also classified as camping parks or historic sites because classifications frequently overlap, they are alike in their attractiveness to large sectors of San Diego County residents.

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