184 Sanctuary, Irvine, CA 92620
Hours: Monday-Sunday (6 AM-10 PM)
Restrooms? No
Playground Surface: Mulch
Parking Lot? No. Street parking only. Can be limited
Gated/Fenced? No
Overview
Magnolia Square Park is an extremely small neighborhood park, tucked into a neighborhood courtyard type setting, in the city of Irvine. The size and peacefulness of the park is what makes it stand out. The playground features a nice wooden play structure with lots of areas to keep kids busy. The highlight of the park lies in its landscaping and relaxing surroundings. Local residents frequent this park with their dogs but outside of that it seems to always be fairly quiet. The lawn area is just big enough to be adequate for kids and families to enjoy and the gazebos are a great place to sit back and relax. Overall, this is a great park, that is a lot less crowded than most nearby parks and that families are sure to enjoy.
Features
All wood play structure with walkways and ramps that have a central area in the middle of the playground
- 3 slides including a spiral slide
- 2 moving bridges, crawl tunnel, tic-tac-toe, bench underneath playground with chess board
- 2 rock walls (1 with a rope to help kids climb up), different climbing ladders and fire pole
- Arch ring ladder climber, snake climbing ladder, Chain cargo net climber and fireman’s pole
Other Amenities
- Big, pretty gazebo area next to playground with 4 benches
- Lawn area is rather small but still a reasonable amount of space and very pretty with nice surrounding landscaping
- Picnic area next to gazebo with a pretty setting and 4 picnic tables and barbecues
Scout’s Story
Today presented my wife and I with another opportunity to get outside with our daughter, Scout. As Scout has been battling stage 4 cancer for nearly 3 months now, getting outside has currently not always been the easiest thing for us. The plan on this day was to take Scout to a few parks on the way to stay with her grandparents, who were visiting for a few nights. Scout finished her last cycle of chemo on October 30th and our next step is to get P.E.T. scans of her tumors in the following weeks. While we wait for scans to figure out Scout’s next steps in treatment, we are currently spending as much time as possible with her, while enjoying every second of each day.
As we made our drive towards grandma and grandpa, Scout decided to take her nap in the car. As we parked and let Scout sleep, I decided to search around on google maps for a little bit. I came upon a little park by the name of Magnolia Square Park, which was right down the street and we decided to go check it out. As we waited for Scout to wake up, I exited the car and walked around the park for a bit. I was surprised at how quiet and peaceful this park was and it seemed to be exactly what we needed on this day. After a bit, Scout woke up and her and my wife joined me at the playground.
As we helped Scout (now 18 months old) navigate the playground, I couldn’t help but think about how grateful I was for this time with her. So many days through this journey have been so hard but no day or moment with Scout gets taken for granted.
November 7, 2022
Getting to Magnolia Square Park
The park is located in a courtyard shape, in a residential neighborhood. There is street parking on all 4 sides of the small park, although it can be tough to come by at times, as the residents mostly use street parking.
