Sandburg Park

Mira Mesa is a great little enclave for food, but there’s weirdly not a lot to do. I have a handful of other spots in the area that I’d like to check out, but most of the parks in the area are super flat. Sandburg park is not only very close to an excellent place for bao buns, but features a great hill for playing bocce!

We began and ended in the lush grass on the south side of the hill, which was an excellent contrast to the dirt, rocks and woodchips up on the hilltop. This park has a few criss crossing sidewalks that I prefer to throw over than to need to bowl on top of or bounce across. While I don’t think there’s too much risk of damage to the bocce set hitting the concrete, an errant throw could end up too close to where the children are playing. It’s also easy enough to choose a round that doesn’t involve the sidewalks too much.

I found the woodchips to be a different kind of unpredictable than roots or stones that changed the way the ball could catch or stop on an angled hillside. There’s roots and stones too though, so don’t worry.

One round had a number of what appeared to be great throws, but none of them stopped on the harder hilltop, all landing way way off course! I love the game design element of choosing interesting features out of what a natural space might provide.

This park was a great mix of altitude changes, play textures and different types of chaos!

Get directions to Sandburg Park on OpenStreetMap