Big Rock Park

Visited here on a Sunday morning, very crowded, dogs are unleashed and running on the grass, 8 pickleball courts are all full and full of friendly people.
You can even get free pickleball class on Sunday around 9am to 11am.
A great Park!

Playground: Dated structures with tons to do. One structure for younger kids and one for older kids. The flooring is tanbark and rubber. There was plenty of shade from large mature trees in the morning. A few benches to sit on. There is also a dry creek bed with climbable rocks.
Bathrooms: A large bathroom structure is by the parking lot.
Parking: Free small parking lot.
Location: A medium sized park that is beautiful. Located in a neighborhood next to the Adult Enrichment Center.
Safety: No unhoused, no trash, many kids, and many adults exercising or walking dogs.

This is our favorite local park. It has a seasonal creek, nice large paved loop, dog park, and two structures for different ages. Great for picnics and parties too, lots of tables and areas to choose from. And of course, the big rocks in the middle are fun for the bigger kids to climb on.

Awesome park! Great place for the whole family and there's always plenty of room and space to set yourself up. The trees offer plenty of shade and there's usually a nice breeze. It's great in the spring time because there usually a river flowing.

Super cute park! I had to move to a different table because they were some bees coming after our food, but aside from that, it was a pretty great little park. Lots of shade in the playground in the field for the kiddos.

I love that this park has a playground for little kids and the other half for big kids but you can sit and watch both. The tiny river behind where you sit is a nice change of scenery in case you want to throw rocks at the water with your kids but not enough for them to get too wet or drown. It's inside a really quiet and safe neighborhood between a gated school and a nice dirt trail for an easy hike. Theres a really big grassy area to let your well-mannered dogs play without a leash (not a gated park tho), a volleyball net on sand next to a full court basketball and a bathroom on site in front of a large concrete area with lots of stone tables and benches. In the back of the park is the busiest part where there's a court that people play tennis, raquetball and pickleball all year round. This park has been amazingly well kept. Such a nice community and hard working maintenance!

I had a great time hiking up this trail. A huge plus is the abundance of shade at least halve of the time. It took around an hour to get up and an hour to get down. (Guide books may say three hours but that would be at a slower pace than almost all the hikers I saw)
This is the East side of the Cowls mountain and the third possible way up to the peak. You won't be able to see downtown or the main parts of San Diego city for the most part going up this trail, as you would on the most popular and most crowded trail on the south side of the mountain. On the other hand you get great views of the enormous landscape of mountains surrounding the city, which you don't get on the south trail.
I think this is the best way up the mountain if you are taking kids. Because of the shade on a large part of the trail even during the hottest midday hours, and also because it's the least steep trail (other than at the very end on the service road) and well serviced with wooden steps.
There are several parts on the trails where you can veer off. For example, about a fifth way up the mountain you can take another trail to to Lake Murray! Imagine hiking up and down the mountain followed by a picnic at the lake :))

This is a beautiful local park close to my home. My grandson loves the playground, and my husband and grown kids regularly use the newly surfaced Pickle Ball court. The East entrance is right next to the trail head.

I always love this park. There's a seasonal creek that the kids love to play in. It's dog friendly and in the mornings they allow off leash. Groups of adults often play pickle ball here at the tennis court and it has a gate the leads to the Mission Trails on the backside of Cowel's Mtn. Lots of picnic tables and some BBQs. Open space for lounging and my yoga practice. Playground is split between toddlers, small school age kids and larger kids up to age 12 as well. Great place to bring the family, pets, or have birthday parties and get-togethers.

Used to play here as a kid!! Its fun to bring my daughter to the same park, I grew up playing at! Very clean and friendly!!

Great park for the family and the dog's. From dawn till 9am you don't have to have a leash on your dog or dog's. All week. Right next to cowls mountain trail.

Very nice park. Pickle ball courts. Kids playgrounds. Grills and tables

Beautiful park with something for everyone. I was taken there to play pickleball. The courts were well maintained and people were very nice.

Park was clean and had a GREAT playset! I had a toddler with me and she had a blast. There is also a creak in the winter

Lovely area for recreation and families with kid!

Played Pickleball..what an awesome spot to play & if you bring youngsters, the playground is close by too. Drinking Fountains work..lots of shade from beautiful, big trees.

Great court experience playing pickle ball and nice shade when waiting for next round

Nice local park with playground for the kids. Lots of picnic tables. Also has many pickleball courts. Dogs can run free here early in the morningz

My granddaughter really loves this park, my wife and I went with her and my daughter for the first time just recently. Very nice place - have basketball courts they have a lot of tennis / pickleball courts as well. I understand every Sunday there are free lessons and pickleball and there are people playing pickleball just about all the time. If that's your sport, this is a great place to go for it. Of course I have the prerequisite restrooms, and an unleashed dog area - at least it's unleashed for a couple hours each morning. It was clean and were able to park the car very easily. Nice place to go. Not overly huge, but then you don't always need huge do you?

Great place to let your kids play in amazing environment!