Hillcrest Park

Hillcrest Park sort of has a fenced in area by the tennis courts, but it is not fully fenced in. The stairs are a bitch to climb, and the park isn’t very big and too close to the road. It wasn’t very safe for my dog and the other dog owners weren’t very friendly either.
We high tailed it up the street to the fenced in Wychwood Barns and had a much better time! I just didn’t feel safe having my dog running around here at Hillcrest.
Lots of kids, and too close to the road. A fenced in dog area would do wonders!

Good ol’ Hillcrest Park services a pretty large surrounding neighbourhood. For a city park it is a great size — just big enough to kick a ball around on, but small enough so that you can be heard if you had to shout at a dependent from across the park.
There’s lots to do here! The eastern half of the grassy area is shared between the tennis club and an off-​leash dog area. It is off-​leash all day from November 1 — March 31 (once the tennis club is closed for the season) and during the rest of the year off-​leash use is restricted to the mornings and evenings. There’s a dividing fence to keep the dogs from the other side of the park but it is not completely closed off so keep that in mind if your dog is not a good listener.
The playground has swings and climbing apparatus on a big sandy area. My daughter and I are new to ‘park life’ (as one of the other moms put it – it just made me think of ‘thug life’) so now I’ve got to buy my kid a little shovel and bucket so she can take advantage of the sand. There’s also a splashpad that’s operational in the summer.
The two sets of stairs leading down to Davenport were renovated this summer and are much improved. It’s now well lit, wide, and the steps are actually well-​defined stone (not like the sorry saggy wooden things there previously).
The tennis club is called Wychwood Tennis Club and they have a very reasonable membership fee. I’ve never joined but have often gone to play as a guest of our tennis fanatic friends.