Hunter Park

A GREAT FUN place to picnic and ride the train!

It’s been a long time sins I have been here. The new park is wonderful and clean as can be.
It will take time for all the new trees and plats to grow and get the old charm back as a full-​grown establishment but it will happen with time. Always enjoyed the Live Steam Locomotives (yes real steam with real sound) and it’s free rides, What more can one ask for. It’s an all volunteer organization and dose a good job of running it. The line can be somewhat long at times but that must be expected when it’s as popular as it is. The wait is well worth it.
Plenty of free parking now that it has been expanded to a world class establishment.
Looking forward to come back for another free train ride soon.

My grandson loves trains, so we headed down to check out Hunter Park and the Riverside Live Steamers. I followed my GPS which took me to the northwest corner of the park where the steamers are stored and maintained. Even though we had a long walk to the depot, it was really cool to see how they are stored and maintained.
The train ride was very nice and much longer than I expected (about 15 minutes). I was amazed to see how much track they had through the park. It was also interesting to hear the Station Master talk about some of the parks history.
If you get a chance, go for a ride and make a donation to this «little» bit of history. They are open on the on the 2^nd and 4^th Sundays of the month between 10:00am and 3:00pm.

I have been here a few times, my kids like it. Huge park, huge field. Good for throwing party’s. My kids enjoy themselves here. Haven’t been on the train ride yet. So looking forward to that.

The location is ok (which is the 4 stars) but the maintenance and the cleanliness of the park is superb! (Bathrooms even have toilet seat covers!)
It has a railroad theme with a mini railroad that goes around the whole park. My brother tells me the little kids can ride on the train during the weekends? The b-​ball courts are nice, enough room for a few different games. The kiddie area has wooden mulch pieces? So it’s nice & soft.
On a weekday night around 6:30 pm (winter) there are ppl playing ball & kids on the swings. It’s well-​lit on the walking path, courts and fields. The grass is spectacular, it smelled nice and I kept thinking it was fake. There’s ample parking spaces as well.
Overall a nice park, glad to see Riverside giving its citizens a nice place to relax, exercise and be in nature.

Nice place to have a kids party. Lots of area to run around. They have a train you can reserve for personal use.
Ita cool because it seems to new a volunteer repair service — staff that keeps the stream engines going.
To bad ours broke down and lost out oh the whole experience.

Lots of birds here. I only recommend it if you like swarms of birds. If you don’t like birds stay home with your pep pep.

When my husband and I first arrived with our 22 month old son who LOVES trains, we were extremely excited. As soon as we parked my son yelled «choo-​choo»! Little did we know that this would be the highlight of the day. The line didn’t seem to long since we arrived there fairly early. However, after standing in line for 45 minutes without moving we later discovered that the main train had broken down and they were trying to fix it. We thought of it as no problem considering we were at a park after all, my husband could keep him occupied with other things as I held our place in line, like the other parents who had young children who too were growing impatient.
After over an hour in line, they seemed to be back in business. Parents began to fall back in line, including my husband. However, as others fell back in line without issue, my husband as well as another mother with her two year old son were the exception. There was a young girl (could have been no older than 11) that I am assuming was a volunteer who began questioning them if they were ever in line to begin with. After confirming that they were in line, and continued harassment from this young girl my husband and the other woman with child decided to just bypass her interrogation and return back in line.
When we got to the front on the line an older gentleman STOPPED my husband telling him RUDELY that he could not board the train. Meanwhile the other woman with child was able to pass through without issue. Despite how upset my husband was he said it was fine, as long our son could board the train with me. After witnessing this the other woman told her husband to board the train with their son, and that she too would not be riding the train, simply because it was NOT FAIR that my husband was discriminatorily singled out. My husband is African American, and I am Filipino. The other woman with child was Caucasian.
I generally do not like playing the race card, but will have to lay my card on the table on this one. THANK YOU to that awesome mom who stood up to what was right, and decided NOT to board the train as well. I’ve been with my husband for twenty years now, and have seen him treated unfairly simply because of the color of his skin. I’ve seen him sacrifice endlessly so his children can HAVE.
This was a TRAIN RIDE that he wanted to ride with our 22 month old son. He shouldn’t have to sacrifice that too. Untimate fail to the Riverside Live Steamers & City of Riverside for allowing such nonsense.

Cool park that offers free mini train rides on second and fourth sunday of every month! The train rides here are completely worth it. It seems to be atleast 15 minutes long. You can’t take any photographs while the train is in motion but you get to ride a real mini steam train. The volunteers that run it are extremely nice. The line to wait to ride the train is lengthy but they had misters hanging all around a covered patio in line for our comfort in the extreme heat.
The park itself is very clean and has baseball fields, playground, and shady areas to lounge in. It kind of seems like a random place in the industrial area of Riverside but it’s a awesome spot for sure!

Love taking the kids here. …

I am rarely in Riverside, but we we’re looking for something fun to do while there on a Sunday. Found it at Hunter’s Park! This review can be soley based on the look on Aidan’s face as we rode on the lil steaming engine that could at Hunter’s.
Image:
kids AND adults in conductor hats
sitting on baby trains
coasting around the park
passing big rigs and getting them to honk
fueling up at the mini stops
waving to everyone as we pass by their picnics
if you close your eyes you’d think you were on a train ride from the 1920’s or something haha ok i took it too far. but it was sooo fun!
Hunter hits it right out the park!

‘If you build it they will come.’
It’s not a ball field in a cornfield but it’s a quantum leap from what it was. There were 2 dilapidated ball fields with a train going around the perimeter. The kids riding on the train would point out all the gophers playing on the field where our team played. The gophers had more fun.
I used to play softball here some years ago. The field was crappy to put it kindly. We had to play over a field with the aforementioned gopher holes, thatch and uneven ground. Some said they saw a snake or two in the outfield during the summer. It was a sad excuse for a ball field and most times we would skip a season if we were scheduled to play on it. The parking area was dirt and rock with a sprinkle of blowing trash.
Now there are tables all around where people can picnic and a large tree where people can lounge after having sandwiches at Tummy Stuffer which is a block away. In the center of the park is a large play structure for kids including a slide and climbing apparatus.
I am so glad they renovated the area because it is now what it should have been years ago. It is a place families can take their kids to play and the ball fields are immaculate. The train is now a terrific attraction with marked RXR crossings all around.
I may even borrow my nephews to take them down to the park because it’s a place that seems alive with fun instead of a breeding ground for rodents and reptiles.

So after a year, the park has finally opened. I have to say it is a huge improvement over the original park.
The old park was run down and not very green. This one they took a lot of time and effort into creating. The park is created around the Riverside Live Steamers trains. For this there are several tracks/​paths that they made for the train. Not only that but they included a «station» for people to wait for the next train to arrive. This is also great as it is nicely shaded and will be great for the upcoming summers seasons.
The train system itself makes up the outter layer of the park, moving inward you will find a ¾ mile walk/​run/​bike path to go around on, which will show you the rest of the beautiful park.
In the middle of the park is a children’s playground and a few shaded picnic tables/​areas for family and outtings.
Last but not least there are two baseball/​softball fields.
All in all this park comes as a real boost to the area. A great place for a family outting.