New state park will open near Modesto
After a decade in the works, California is getting a new state park this summer.
Dos Rios Ranch, a 1,600-acre plot west of Modesto where the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers converge, has long been slated to become the next state park. On Monday, the Department of Parks and Recreation announced it would open June 12.
Its location in the San Joaquin Valley makes it a stand-out property among the 280 park units in the state parks system, most of which are along the coast and in the mountains and foothills. Department of Parks and Recreation Director Armando Quintero has characterized Dos Rios as a needed public investment in a “a park-poor region.”
The site for Dos Rios was donated by the Chico conservation group River Partners, which spent $40 million restoring the area from its previous incarnation as a dairy farm to its more natural state as a floodplain, a transition that state leaders have touted as climate-resilient. In Monday’s announcement, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the Dos Rios restoration “a key asset to fighting the climate crisis.”
The park will feature some limited hiking trails, picnic tables and ramadas, with more amenities and facilities to come, according to the announcement. “Planning for greater river access for swimming, angling, boating, and other water sports, along with trails for bicycling and other outdoor recreation activities will involve a public engagement process that includes consultation with area tribes.”
“Opening Dos Rios is a game changer,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said in the announcement. “It provides a beautiful riverfront destination for San Joaquin Valley residents to get outside and recreate, in a part of the state with few such places. It also provides a new model of a multi-benefit park that also reduces flood risk for local communities, provides a refuge for local residents during worsening heat waves and restores the natural environment of the Central Valley to benefit local wildlife.”
Before Dos Rios, the most recent addition to the state parks system came in 2014, when Kern County’s Onyx Ranch State Vehicular Recreation Area opened south of Sequoia National Park near Isabella Lake.