Markham Nature Park & Arboretum

nice little hike and arboretum
free admission

This is a great little park hidden away in the middle of Concord. The city and I’m guessing volunteers seem to take great care if the wide variety of plants and flowers here, and there’s a nice big grassy area that my daughter to run around in. It’s close to our house so we try to walk over there several times a week, I’ve noticed a lot less stoners in the parking lot which is great!

Really pretty park, but rather small. It’s a nice change of scenery if you want a place to relax and stroll among pretty plants or sit on the lawn. There are lots of shrubs, trees, and pretty flowers.
We did see a lot of litter by the creek, and some kids who looked like we’d caught them in the middle of something wrong when we glanced their direction. But we’ve had no problems here.

Hidden from the busy Concord streets, Markham Nature Park is in a world of its own. When you pull into the parking lot, you’re immediately given the option to walk near a creek or through the grassy area. It’s a mini place to explore and quite beautiful/​well-​maintained.
Apart from the tree walk, open space, and trails — they also have a nursery and plant sales. They have some of the most unique flowers and plants for sale as well as many tomatoes!
If you’re looking to have a relaxing day out in nature, I suggest giving this park a shot. You’ll love it!

This park is still awful! I’m not sure how people don’t notice that besides all the rowdy, disrespectful teenagers, the park is filled with other undesirables.
Homeless people live in the park… certain more secluded parts of the trails clearly smell like urine and I’ve seen human feces along the trail as well.
There are also numerous druggies hanging out there. I don’t need to worry about some meth head freaking out and attacking me because I walk by. Plus all the drug deals that go on in the parking lot. I really don’t need to get shot while out on a walk.
My advice is to find a new park to frequent.

wonderful place
however do not climb in the trees like the idiot in one of amy p’s pictures !!!

It is pretty, and a nice place to take a relaxing stroll. The downside is, you may be walking over broken beer bottles or watching drugs get sold as you take the nice little nature walk. It seems the ideal place for the local High School stoners to buy and smoke their weed. Not too threatening, as they seem to want to avoid everyone.

This is a great little park hidden between Cowell & Clayton Rd. Parts of it have a rustic, naturistic feel to it, which is a nice surprise to find something like that so close to home. You can walk along the creek, or check out their community garden, or hang out in the grassy area. The only downside to it is apparently the area with the redwood grove has become a popular hang out for a lot of teen partiers (who I’ve seen out there a lot) who dump their cigarette butts, booze bottles and other trash there on the ground. Not good. Still a great park, but a bit frustrating with the litterbug teens spoiling part of it.

«BUNNIES!!!,» squeals my until-​then cranky daughter while we were walking along the small creek.
«I will call them Oreo (black-​and-​white bunny) and Caramel (caramel-​colored bunny).»
She then proceeded to speculate on the relationship of the two bunnies and told me that we should try to see if we could find where their burrows were. So look for burrows we did while walking through the footpath amidst the shrubs, trees, and various flora.
«SQUIRRELS!!!,» squeals she again.
«I will name that one Nutcracker, and that one Sugar Plum, and that one Candy Apple, and that one…»
We then proceeded to watch these squirrels (all seven of them, all named by the little girl) look for nuts and speculated on how it would be amazing if they were friends and how bad it would be if they were in a war. It took a considerable time before she deemed it proper to explore the trail some more.
«FALCON!!!,» squeals the little girl, «I will name him Soren. This is the best afternoon ever!»
Admittedly, this place is tiny. However, it is quiet. So quiet that the entire duration of our visit made us feel as if we were the only people there and that we weren’t smack dab in the middle of Concord. But I truly love this park for sparking such enthusiasm and excitement in my little girl. Also, it is wonderful to watch her imagination working (with the animals’ secret lives), which is something that is lacking in today’s children diversions (i.e. video games).
Other good points:
1. Plenty of parking
2. Shaded areas
3. Community garden
So yes, even if Markham Arboretum is not as big as other parks, it still gets a five-​star rating from me – for sparking my daughter’s imagination and for giving us a little getaway from the hectic pace of Concord.

My fiancé and I took our pup to the park Sunday. The weather was nice and so was the park. It was a bit smaller then Id thought-​when we parked there was some teenagers in the parking lot throwing a football around. However, I did wish they had a water faucet but all in all in it was a nice park :)

The boy and I came here last weekend because we were suffering from food coma and I wanted to take a walk somewhere. It was a gorgeous day in Concord so why not go see some flowers and trees?
Markham Nature Park was pretty small and only had one main trail to walk along (
). We saw some people walking their dogs and teenagers chilling there too. We also passed by this lawn area with a gazebo that I thought looked like a nice area for a wedding (
).
There was also a little creek (
) running through the park and colorful flowers (
) to gaze at. I was somewhat disappointed because I was expecting a larger area with more variety of flora to observe but it did its job in providing us the trail and shade we needed. Maybe I can explore it more next time I’m in town.
One last pic (
)!

My husband and I have visited Markham numerous times because it’s a nice, quiet little park with lots of shady areas and not many people. While this isn’t a «dog park,» dogs are permitted as long as they are on a leash and they are also doggie bags provided for free. I’m surprised that this park doesn’t get a lot of visitor traffic considering how well landscaped and kept up it is!
Concord’s community garden is also located here, so if you wish to have your own plot and grow your own food, check out Markham’s website. The last time I heard, there were numerous available plots for Concord residents.
If you’re looking for a very quiet park with not a ton of people (as opposed to Newhall during the summer) to picnic at, this is the place for you.