Huckleberry's Dog Blog

This is Dory on a high tide day at the Mitchel Cove dog beach in Santa Cruz, CA.  There were lots of puddles and tide pools to look at, and rocks to climb.  Dory had a good time sniffing and being at the beach.  "Beach" is definitely becoming one of her favorite words.  The dogs are allowed off leash at this beach at certain times but there is no gated entry so Dory is always on leash because of her bird chasing fetish.  This dog beach really could use some signage with the name of the beach as well as some dog rules.  The dog beach about a mile away just closed and I thought this would become a more popular place but there is always only one or two dogs there at a time.  This time there wasn't even any seaweed to smell the place up.

We took Dory to the Miyuki Dog Park in San Jose, CA.  She seemed to like it here.  It is all new artificial turf and crushed gravel.  There is a doggie drinking fountain, benches, and trees.  Dory likes going to new places to sniff but she usually does not play the first time at a new place and sometimes just follows me around.  There were only about 10 other dogs there and she was not interested in any of them, probably because she did not know them.

The Aptos Polo Grounds park in Santa Cruz County is mostly tanbark and some dirt.  There are really nice dogs and people that come here to play.  The dogs seem to really enjoy themselves.  Surf City coffee shop between the dog park and freeway that has a fenced dog area as well, so it is a nice stop along the way. My husband is happy to get a good vanilla latte on the way into to the dog park.

The Scotts Valley Dog park is a very large dog park in a nice community.  This dog park is 100% tanbark; I was told it was donated by local tree trimming companies.  This works well since the area is known for large amounts of rain and the tanbark makes the park useable year round.  My dog has taken some time to get use to the tanbark and much prefers dirt and mud.  But I prefer less mud.

But there are rumors that the park will be moving to the north side of town sometime in 2008, near the high school. We will have to wait and see though.

The Mitchell's Cove Dog Beach has some weird rules and hours but is the only off leash beach currently in miles!  It is nearly impossible to find as it is just a stairwell leading down to the beach and I am not even sure it has a sign stating “Mitchell’s beach” much less dog rules or hours.  It tends to have a lot of dead seaweed lying around.  Sometimes it is nice and other times it smells.  I think dog lovers should take some action to clean up this beach and get better signage.

That being said, it is still the only off leash beach in Santa Cruz County.

This downtown San Jose park was hard to find.  It is off of N. First Street and buried under a freeway overpass in the middle of a high-rise apartment complex (we have actually seen this kind of setup before).  The city boasts that this is a dry place to play even in the rain.  I wonder how the gravel gets washed to keep the smell down without the rain?   It was a small neighborhood style dog park also not in the best part of the city but everyone needs to exercise their dog.  The mural made it quite pretty for such a small area.

The Delmas park is down town San Jose.  I stopped by here once, it was a long strip of dirt and trees with not a lot of parking and maybe not the safest place to be in the city if you don't know you way around.  I am sure the dogs love it and it gives the people of the neighborhood a place to exercise their dogs. Now that we have moved to Santa Cruz, we don't spend much time in San Jose dog parks, besides maybe Butcher Park and Fontana Park.

Butcher dog park in west San Jose opened in 2007 and features a new type of Astroturf.  It is beautiful and new and looks like a golf course.  I had to make a double take to tell if it was real sod or not.  Unfortunately my dog does not like to walk on it as much as real grass.  This park is smaller and tends to be full, people bring their lawn chairs and camp out for the day.  The small dog area may have up to 30 dogs all running around in the lawn area. There have been dog groups meetups at this park, and it can be packed at times. More parks like this one across the county would be great.

The Fontana dog park is in the Almaden Valley district of San Jose, and is 100% dirt last I was there.  They have gone through several ideas for turf and tried to re-sod on several occasions.  It is one of the only dog parks down in this southern area of the city.  The dogs that come here are spoiled, usually very well behaved. It is a nice park.  Our dogs just love to go here to see their buddies and roll in the dirt. We will have more pictures once it warms up a bit more here.

The Los Gatos Creek dog park was built by the county and another small city in the area.  It was a big deal when it opened because it is along a walking and biking path so joggers and walkers can stop in with their dogs conveniently.  The cost of parking is high ($6 per visit), free parking many blocks away, and the dog park is the same as the city run parks that are free.  This dog park is mostly grass/dirt depending on the season. So far we don't go to this park much, since it is out of our way, and a little expensive due to the parking charge.

Saratoga Creek Dog Park is run by San Jose City and has just been updated.  It was previously all dirt but now has Astroturf and a watering system.  This park is great in the summer because it has mature trees for shade and the people are friendly.  Some of them bring lawn chairs to share.  We have visited here quite a few times.  Just beware of the rescued greyhounds, they tend to be rough with small dogs (see the greyhound rescue sites for more information about rescue greyhounds at dog parks). 

The Las Palmas park is run by Sunnyvale, the dog park is rather large and 100% dirt.  It does not smell the best when entering and can get quite muddy.  The rest of Las Palmas park is beautiful and sometimes we just opt to walk on leash in the large grass fields outside the dog area.  I have had trouble with some of the dogs that visit this park being too aggressive (some type of husky mixes), also. These pictures are from this last summer.

The Reed Street park is one of our favorite dog parks and is run by the city of Santa Clara and was developed and opened in 2006. It took forever to gain county approval, conduct the soil samples and build the facility, but it is one of the areas best with its grassy hills and walking track.

The Brookdale Park was relocated to Reed Street, in our Santa Clara, CA area.  We use to visit this park often; it was 100% track gravel and pretty much useable year round.  The neighbors complained about the dogs barking too early on Saturday mornings. This is good lesson how community support can hurt or help dog park efforts in a local area.

Soon after the closure, the city opened Reed Street Dog Park in an industrial portion of the city.  Some of the dog owners were concerned at first since the Reed street site is right next to the commuter train tracks and a busy street and had to be carefully checked for soil contaminants from years of industrial use. But now it has grown to be a favorite of many local residents.

One of our favorite places in Santa Cruz, California, Lighthouse Field and Beach were just repossessed
by the State and are no longer allowing off leash dogs. The county is in discussions to have these areas re-opened to the dog loving public.

I have found it difficult in my metropolitan area to find the dog parks.  Some are run by the city, others by the state or county departments, so there is no one website.  To add to the frustration the parks are regularly closed for maintenance or re-sodding around here.  And on several occasions I showed up to the dog park to find it closed for its weekly mowing or flea spraying.  So I started a website to catalog the dog parks near me.  I found about 20 in Santa Clara county.  I mapped them all and recorded the days and times they were open so I could go to the right park on the right days. 

Mostly dog parks are found by word of mouth around here.  Everyone seems to know about two or three of them but no one is quite sure of their names and sometimes give different directions.  So I cataloged them with the park name but included the maps so I can find exactly the one I want.