Favorite Picnic Destinations For A Last Minute Perfect Day

After conducting hundreds of interviews around town, these are our favorite places to spread the favorite picnic blankets, and soak up some sun.

6. Rengstorff Park is where the new Community Center is located. There’s a nice big picnic area, reservations required. You’ll find benches along the path that circles the park, and plenty of quiet little corners to spread your picnic blanket. This park has it all, a pool, skateboard park, pickleball, tennis, dog training area, even a preschool. It’s the perfect place for people watching. Everyone loves this park and I feel like it’s the heart and soul of our community.

5. Pioneer Park can sometimes be rather soggy, so spread your blanket on the tops of the hills. There are no official picnic tables, but there are plenty of benches, and I love that the city recently added even more of them. Fun fact: This park used to be a cemetery.

4. Eagle Park has picnic tables, no reservations required.

3. The Kite Flying Area in on the right side, as soon as you enter Shoreline Park and go through the ranger station. Most people sit in their cars here and watch the kite flyers. There are a few benches, but I’ve never seen them being used. This is the place to go if you want to stay inside and enjoy the view from the comfort of your drivers seat. I took that photo of the Canada Goose here. They’re pretty to watch, and they sound nice, but they poop all over the place. It’s not too much of a problem, unless you’re sitting on the ground without a blanket, which I would never recommend doing.

2. Shoreline Park. Go to the area at the back of the park, by the wind surfers. It’s so gorgeous here. People from all corners of the world are here, enjoying the view, and the bay breeze, with their families. This is definitely one of those place that you should bring your out-of-town guests.

1 . Cuesta Park is my favorite place to go for a picnic. It’s not nearly as packed as Shoreline Park is and it’s big enough that you can easily find yourself a quiet spot. Even though there are picnic tables, and a barbecue area (reservations required for the BBQ area) , I’ve always just brought along a blanket and found my own little shady spot under a tree. There are cool old log benches at Cuesta Park.

Here’s an official brochure to all of our city parks. Here’s where you can make reservations (but only if you’re a Mountain View resident or business). You’ll have to create an account first. You can also make those reservations in person at the Mountain View Community Center, 201 S Rengstorff Avenue, or fax (omg… really?) to (650) 963-3027.

Have a great picnic!