Live Oak Park is a local park that contains some of the oldest Oaks in the Fallbrook area. It also harbors an old grinding rock used by the Luiseno Indians centuries ago.
Arriving at the park, I was surprised to see how crowded it was. A lot of families had planned family picnics for Easter Sunday. I was a bit discouraged to find it so crowded, because I was really looking forward to having the park all to myself (it being a holiday where many families are in church early in the morning). I decided to stay though and take at least one walk around the park since I had to pay the $2 parking fee.
After parking, I started at the north eastern side of the park, and wound my way west along the path through the park. It was really hard to take pictures with so many people, mainly because I did not want to look like a weirdo photographing strangers, so I tried my best to find shots that were void of park-goers.
Even surrounded by people, the park was just as wonderful as I remembered it to be. The oaks are so beautiful and tall there that it feels like you are protected under a canopy of their branches. Each oak has it's own battle scars left from woodpeckers, some more than others. The small creek that runs through the park holds the most memories for me. I remember when I was younger I would come to the park with my grandparents and search for crawdads. We would climb into the water below and wade through it in shorts, looking for the bright red crustaceans with lopsided claws. Once we found at least 5 of them, all different sizes, and we brought a few home to take care of in an aquarium. We would only keep them for a week before bringing them back down to the park to set free.
I continued to walk around the park, trying to take in the changes that have happened over the years. The old playground equipment that used to be made of rusting metal has since been replaced by a large plastic playground of slides and monkey bars. One thing that had not changed was the old grinding stone. It still sits under the same oak tree that it has sat under for centuries.
Coming back around towards the parking lot from the southern side of the park, I did notice a neat little addition though. A new native plant garden! It is a small garden, but it was definitely fun to walk through. I wish I had taken a little bit more time examining all the plants in the garden, but at that point an Easter egg hunt was ready to start nearby and I assumed it best to get out of the kids' way.
Overall, I did enjoy my walk through the park, but I will definitely have to go back there again sans the crowd of people.
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