Lafayette Community Park

COMMUNITY PARK

Lafayette Community Park’s 68-acre site provides a diverse array of opportunities for topography, habitat, and recreation. The south-end has two sports fields used in the Spring for baseball, and in the Fall for soccer. There are a designated community picnic area and some single picnic tables. Near the picnic area and fields is a Tot Playground with an adjoining lawn. A footbridge leads people to the fields, picnic area, and public restrooms from the parking lot, located at 480 Saint Mary’s Road. A nature trail passes through the whole park.

The Pétanque site (French version of bocce) and picnic tables are bordered by Las Trampas Creek and the Saint Mary’s Lane. The connection is provided by a pathway from the south-end parking lot at Lafayette Community Park. Local Pétanque players were active in helping the Parks, Trails & Recreation Department develop the courts and providing ongoing repairs, classes, and tournaments. 

Las Trampas Creek has formed a narrow meandering strip along the western edge of the park with steep-sided banks and Grizzly Creek runs along the northern edge. Creeks are surrounded by areas of thick riparian vegetation. Originally flatlands along Las Trampas Creek were floodplains and used to grow walnuts and pears before the 1960s. Remnants remain of those orchards. The rolling lands constitute the highest ground and form much of the overall location. They host a number of vegetative communities including a well-developed woodland of oaks, open grassland, and two groves of eucalypts. Wildlife and vegetation include:

Trees:

• Box Elder
• Madrone
• Valley Oak
• California Buckeye
• Black Walnut
• Mulberry
• White Alder
• Coast Live Oak  
• Arroyo Willow
• California Bay

SHRUBS

• Coyote Brush 
• Toyon Canyon Gooseberry 
• Ninebark 
• Coffeeberry
• Wild Rose
• Blush Lupine  
• Honeysuckle  
• California Blackberry
• Hazelnut  
• Tefoil  
• Snowberry
• Poison Oak

BIRDS

• Red Tail Hawks
• Stellar Jays  
• Woodpeckers
• Great Horned Owls  
• Rufus Sided Towhees  
• Mockingbirds
• Cooper’s Hawks  
• Brown Towhees  
• Black Headed Grosbeaks
• Sparrow Hawks  
• Turkey Vultures  
• Quail
• California Jays  
• Sparrows  
• Red Shafted Flicker
• Ravens  
• Western Bluebirds
• Titmouse 
• White Breasted Nuthatch  
• Audubon Warbler
• Ruby Crowned Kinglet 
• Robin Chickadee

REPTILES 

• Blue Bellied Lizards
• Gopher Snakes
• Garter Snakes 
• Northern Alligator Lizards  
• Ringneck Snakes  
• Green Racer Snakes