Oak Grove Regional Park
4520 W Eight Mile Rd, Stockton, CA 95209, United States
The Stockton Oak Grove Regional Park offers trails, playgrounds, fishing (all CA fishing laws apply), disc golf, and weekend paddle boats throughout the summer. Located near Stockton’s Spanos Park West, this 180-acre park is a common spot for picnics in a beautiful oak forest setting, hosts many annual events and fishing tournaments, and features many amenities.
Oak Grove Lake is a 10-acre lake stocked with seasonal catfish and trout and features rentable paddle boats and aqua-cycles (weekends April-October only). The Oak Grove Nature Center provides educational programs and exhibits illustrating the Park, San Joaquin County and San Joaquin Valley flora and fauna native to this area. Bring the family and enjoy learning about our local wildlife and native plants, seeing the rocks, fossils, and fossil collections, finding interesting information about the people of Miwok and Yokuts who lived in Central Valley California. The Nature Center also provides many Spring and Summer programs including seminars and learning stations.
Oak Grove Regional Park features two nature trails; a 1.5-mile walk through old grove trees plus an accessible 1/4-mile handicapped path. Bring your next party out to regional park Oak Grove! Indoor Boat House and outdoor picnic shelters are available for sale.
Oak Grove Regional Park also provides sports on an 18-hole disc golf course, children’s playgrounds, a family campground for camping youth groups, horseshoe pits, picnic tables and barbecues.
Even this park hosts Astronomy in the Park once a month and is a nice opportunity. Plus it’s cool, after hours, to experience the park. There are lots of open fields, picnic tables, parking, a small pond with paddle boats, fishing, trails and a center of nature. Well kept park, and clean bathrooms.
The Nature Center offers numerous programs including festivals and learning stations in the Spring, Fall and Summer. The Trails remain open throughout the Winter; however, due to the weather, the activities of the Center are limited.
The Oak Grove Docent Council sponsors and manages the education programs. The Nature Center programs concentrate mainly on local wildlife, their natural ecosystems and the early inhabitants of the oak grove, specifically the tribes of Miwok and Yokuts.
Many years ago, Miwok and Yokuts hunted for game in the vast oak woods of Central California and competed with the grizzly for the abundant acorns which fell from the Valley Oaks. Antelope Tule elk, deer, and pronghorn roamed freely around the Valley, while millions of ducks and geese soared overhead.
Sift The Indian Miwok
The native American way of life and the vast wild herds had largely disappeared by the turn of the last century. There were still many of the majestic oaks gone that once dominated most of the Valley. The Oak Grove Regional Park oak forest is one of the last large stands remaining in the northern San Joaquin Valley for a long-time peek into the property.
