Don Castro Regional Recreation Area

A beautiful, authentic canyon wetland park—perfect for hiking or walking the dog. Just a heads-up: some sections can be muddy and slippery, so watch your step. The loop trail is nearly 2 miles.

Great summer spot with the swimming lagoon (though cold water), and we enjoy walking the animals around the large trails (though its natural forest, so do watch out for poison oak, ticks, etc if you go way out). They have a great walking/hiking loop as well. Lots of bbqs, picnic tables, and other amenities too.

Our family LOVES Don Castro. It's a beach vibe with posted life guards, clean water, and no waves to worry about sweeping your kids away. They even have loaner life vests FOR FREE. Every time we've gone we've met some nice families, got good n tired, and made nice memories. Make sure you come prepared and with cash to pay for parking!

I'm honestly surprised that not many people know about this, at least everyone we tell! The beach is clean. The water is clean too. The bathrooms are also very clean. They have showers. They have lots of tables and spots away from the beach to BBQ. We come when they open and spend the full day there. They do this thing where they have water breaks for the kids and so everyone under a certain age has to get out of the water. Its for like 10-15mins but the adults get the water to themselves and it's great that parents who don't join their littles in the water can then recount and make sure everyone is good, reapply sunscreen, take a snack break etc. There is no place to buy food or drinks so you gotta come with your own stuff but they let you bring in little grills too. Hiccups: We always make a reservation and last summer they would check in the reservation line way before it opened. We still had to wait outside but we all already had our bracelets so when they opened the doors we could just go right in. There's the non-reservation line. This summer, the last 3 visits, they started checking in at the time the park opens. Which means it moves as slow as the non-reservation line, sometimes even slower! Idky they do this. Theres no reason people in the non-reservation line are getting in before people who have already prepaid. But thats how it is this summer. Also, youre allowed to eat on the beach which is great BUT times there are kids bringing their food into the water like big piece of watermelon or their soda drinks and then instead of throwing the rinds and cans out they let it go...in the water. So families do need to pay more attention to their young ones who are eating.

Nice and not very crowded at all on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Parking was easy and there was no fee today. Everyone just enjoying the day. Lifeguards were posted if you have children and everyone seemed very low key