We took one of our regular trips to Costco in Avon today, and it occurred to me that we should check out the Avon Parks & Recreation website, to see if there were any interesting parks nearby.
And one did look interesting. Just a couple miles west of the Avon Commons shopping area, off Route 611, is Northgate Park. While there’s nothing that particularly unique about this little park, it’s a delightful neighborhood reserve that’s worth a stop if you’re in the area.
We brought our dinner—Mmmmm, Costco pizza—to the park and ate in the very well-maintained pavilion. Then the boys tackles the playground, which had a few more activities than most parks of its size. It was a beautiful, warm Sunday evening, but we had the park mostly to ourselves for our whole visit.
Northgate has a good-sized (I’d guess three acres or so) fishing pond, complete with grass carp, snapping turtles, a fountain in the middle, even a little island. On the other side of the lake from the playground is a pretty formidable sledding hill, which also has a nice view of the entire lake and the cute neighborhood that wraps around the north of the park.
There were also some very friendly … uh, almost too friendly … ducks that patrolled the area near the pavilion. They’ve obviously been fed a lot by people and pretty much aren’t scared of humans. Both boys were very amused by them, but it did make me a tad nervous for a few minutes during dinnertime.
I didn’t realize it at first, but there is also a fitness track that wraps around the lake, and a couple of soccer fields way in the back (west) part of the park. And there is ample green space to just run around in—or it would be a great open area to play frisbee, too.
We did bring our fishing poles, but about 30-minutes of fishing didn’t result in even a nibble for the three of us. There are quite a few benches arranged around the lake (all facing it), so we picked one and that made for a nice place to sit while holding our poles. Saved us the trouble of lugging out folding chairs from the car!
The more I think about the vast swaths of green space, the more I think that we’ll be back to this park soon, but with some frisbees in the trunk.