The Preserve

Elk Grove's Largest Natural Park Space

The Preserve is 28-acre passive park space that includes a habitat restoration of wetlands, native grasslands, and native oak forest. It's a place for all ages and abilities to explore and take in our agricultural history, with a historic silo and pistachio orchard, fitness court, walking trails, a wheelchair-accessible playground, picnic tables, and benches to relax and unwind from the outside world.

Explore the Wild Side of Elk Grove

Animal habitats at the Preserve include owl burrows, bat boxes and snags in the islands, which are valuable as bird nesting areas.

Trees you'll find include Sawleaf Zelkova, California Sycamore, Valley and Interior Live Oak, Big Leaf Maple, Box Elder, Oregon Ash, Fremont Cottonwood, Red Willow plus the Arroyo Willow, and you'll also find the original pistachio orchard on the south side of the property.

Find Your Way

View Map Larger

The Pond

The 4.3-acre pond welcomes you to unwind at benches beside the pond's edge, jog the trails, and take in interpretive signs that encourage us to reconnect with nature.

Great Lawn

Meet up with family and friends at the Great Lawn, an expansive space anchored by a large oak tree, centrally located between the Aquatics Center and the pond.

Playground

The west side of the playground is for older kids, and kids at heart. The large play mound with climbing routes, a wheelchair accessible merry-go-round, a wobblesphere, a jackhammer, the Neptune rope climber with slides, and two saucer swings encourages play at every turn.

Play Pond

Designed with the development of children between 2-5 years old in mind. It’s shaded and includes slides, a spinner, lily stepping pads, a bridge, a tunnel, and topography for running and playing.

Sensory Plaza

The sensory plaza includes a touch wall with a tunnel and 3D tiles illustrating the lifecycle of a frog, multiple musical instruments, cattails, animal prints, and a garden planted with interesting textures, colors, and scents to engage all the senses.

Picnic Shelter

A beautiful wood roof covers six picnic tables and two barbecues. The picnic shelter is conveniently located between the playground and the public restrooms.

Overlook Point

This covered space includes five picnic tables that overlook the wetlands and is located south of the playground.

Bridge Crossing

The bridge crossing has an overlook with four benches, a view of the pond looking west, and an interpretative sign.

Fitness Court

The fitness area is an outdoor bodyweight circuit training space. Inclusive for all ages and abilities and is fully accessible. Download the free Fitness Court App on the App Store or Google Play, and get a full-body workout in only seven minutes. The workout includes core, squat, push, lunge, pull, agility and bend.

Amphitheater

With enough seating to accommodate a field trip, the amphitheater provides an experience closer to the pond level to help foster a different perspective and to provide opportunities for science and nature-based experiments.

Historic Silo

The historic silo is over 100 years old and is an original part of the property. The 24-foot tall silo was used to store harvested food.

Trails

The trails include a large loop (starting near the picnic shelter, looping around the south side of the pond, and back along the north side of the lawn). The loop includes bronze trail markers every 0.1 miles, making the total trail length approximately 1.2 miles.

"Cultivation"

by Jonathon Russell and Saori Ide of Ride Art Studio

Made entirely with stainless steel, four leaf-like elements at the top of the sculpture are kinetic, powered by the wind, and move independently from one another. The moving leaf-like forms represent seeds and pods. Each form moves gracefully with the wind on its own in random patterns and yet the entire top part of sculpture turns as one. This indicates individuals expressing their own identity yet moving and working together to support each other, creating a strong and vibrant community. The base of the sculpture represents both a seed pod as well as a rootstock. Like a silo storing crops that have been harvested for future use, the lower part of the sculpture symbolizes a container that safeguards the product of the community's efforts and stores this resource to feed and nourish the aspirations of future generations.