Shoreline Park, Mountain View facts for kids
Shoreline at Mountain View is a cool park in Mountain View, California, USA. It's a special place because it used to be a landfill, which is where trash is buried. Now, it's a fun park for everyone to enjoy! The city opened it in 1983.
Contents
The Story of Shoreline Park
The city of Mountain View bought this land way back in 1967. They wanted to build a fun place for people to visit. At first, they thought about raising the ground to stop floods, but it was too expensive. So, for a while, it became a place where garbage from San Francisco was buried.
Shoreline Park finally opened in 1983. There were a few small problems with fires from methane gas, which is made by decaying trash. But the park quickly became a success! In 1987, Shoreline Park even won a special award called the Helen Putnam Award for public works.
Fun Things to Do at Shoreline
Shoreline Park has lots of awesome things to do!
- Golf Course: There's a big 18-hole golf course called Shoreline Golf Links. It has a shop and a driving range where you can practice your swing.
- Shoreline Lake: The park also has a large, human-made lake that's about 50 acres big.
- Aquatic Center: On one side of the lake, you'll find the Shoreline Aquatic Center. Here, you can rent all sorts of boats like sailboats, windsurfing boards, kayaks, canoes, rowboats, and even pedalos (paddle boats!). They also offer classes if you want to learn how to sail or kayak.
- Shoreline Cafe: Right next to the lake, there's a cafe where you can grab a snack or a meal.
- Shoreline Amphitheatre: A famous outdoor concert venue, Shoreline Amphitheatre, is right next to the golf course.
- Historic House: You can also see the Rengstorff House, which is an old Victorian mansion. It was moved to the park from another spot in Mountain View.
There are also many miles of paved and unpaved trails for walking, running, and biking. Some of these trails are part of the bigger San Francisco Bay Trail. The trails connect to the Stevens Creek Trail on one side and the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve on the other.
Home for Amazing Wildlife
Even though Shoreline Park is developed, part of it is a special place for wild animals, especially birds! It's like a wildlife refuge right on the edge of the bay. You can see many different kinds of birds there almost any time.
The grassy areas near Permanente Creek in Shoreline Park are super important for a special bird called the western burrowing owl. These owls are getting harder to find in the Bay Area. They were listed as a "Species of Special Concern" in 1979 because their numbers were dropping.
Sometimes, building new things can affect the owls' homes. For example, in 2008, some burrowing owls had to move so that land could be sold for a hotel. This was a bit controversial because it's hard for the owls to find new suitable places to live. Later, in 2010, more land where the owls found food was used for a recreational park.
In the 1980s, there were hundreds of burrowing owls in Santa Clara County. But now, there are only about 35. In 2011, only three owl families raised ten young owls at Shoreline, which was much less than in earlier years. This shows how important it is to protect their habitat.
Gallery
-
Family of Burrowing owls
-
American white pelican landing by San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains in background
-
Greater egret and gull on pilings
-
Great egret and ducks
-
Great blue heron and ducks
-
Small water birds
-
Canada geese in Shoreline Park
-
Hawk on pole
-
Egret landing on water, view away from bay
-
Shoreline Golf Links at Sunset
-
Part of the lake used for Shoreline Aquatic Center rentals and classes
_in_shoreline_park.JPG)
- You can find a video about the history of the park at the Mountain View Public Library.
Images for kids
-
Image of Shoreline Park, Mountain View
-
Early morning view of lake
.jpg)
