Discovery Park

This place is really easy and pretty awesome and fun however just be careful there’s broken glass everywhere on the shore I have two little girls seven and four so just freaked us out

You ever wanna just get up and go for a DISCOVERY?
Yes! Then get on down or up here now. There is ALOT of things you can do here with family, friends, or even yourself.
1. Bike riding from here to folsom on the bike trail.
2. Horse riding (bring your own only, non here but it is ok for them to come.) Seen people riding them and there rements left behind.
3. Boats, kayak, ski do, what ever you wanna do to float your self around the water.
4. Bows and arrows, they have a section of about 10 archery targets (hay barrels).
5. Fishing, get your arms ready for many locations. I know there is sturgeon in the water not sure what else might be lurking around. There has been sitings of seals, and i believe a whale made it close to here a few years back.
6. Nature, get your spy glasses or binoculars ready for the many different birds, and animals you can find.
7. Many areas open for family games of soccer, backyard baseball, tag, football, volleyball, but what ever you choose bring everything you need, as all they supply is the vast land to do it.
8. Swimming, be SAFE, whatch your kids and pay attention to the different currents swooping through. Different times of the years and levels of water make a huge difference. The spot that is dedicated to swimming has 2 channels that meet up. They do have life vests for free to use. BRING THEM BACK WHEN DONE! See my pics.
9. Picnic, plenty of tables, and grills for BBQ, remember to bring charcoal no propane grills here, unless you bring your own propane grill.
10. They do have a spot for overnight campers, not sure on camping in a tent though.
11. They hold some festivals here too, check first before you come they close it down for them only.
If no to discovering new things, well just stay at home and think of something else to do or not.
The park is open year round from dusk till dawn, with a daily $ 5 for parking or you can buy a pass for the year at $ 50, which allows you togo many more locations.
The prices for boats/​trailers and for other things
Check out this for more info about discovery park
Check out the pics others have posted for more fun stuff and things to see.
There is a lot of full sized restrooms located all around the park i can think of atleast 4. Plus during the summer times they have added porto potties to accommodate more people.
Reminder: becareful and remember your surroundings weather your in the water swimming or boating, walking or riding a bike or horse. Have fun, make some new discoveries, be safe and explore the great outdoors! :)

I don’t give a damn what any one say’s this park is the ish! Now on a sunny day when is nice and hot and full of people u wont see me no where near in sight. On a cold gloomy morning or freezing rainy day my happy ass will be out there with a big smile letting my dogs run off the leash.
I love it when the whole river is empty and no one is in sight, u might come across a few homeless people under the bridge they might ask u for a cigarette, some change or in my case the’ll ask for me to grab my dogs lol sorry homeless skillets.
This park also has benches and bbq pits accessible if u wanna grill and chill wit the family, u could also reserve some of those benches and grills for the weekends under the gazebo. They have access to the bike trail if u wanna ride ur bike, walk or jog. Theres also a shooting range if u have a bowing arrow, i’ll stay the hell away from that im not trying to get hit wit a loose arrow lol screw that. I like coming here either really early in the morning or late at night when theres no one around also rainy days are bliss out here :) stop by check it out, during the summer they do charge to enter the park and they also have a boat dock if ur balling like that and have a boat, just saying.

First time here. Very beautiful near the boat launch area. A few homeless people but they weren’t rude or anything. I’d definitely be back.

Archery range is excellent. Got there early, shot for an hour and a half. Saturday morning. No people. Excellent groomed lanes with hay bales at the end of each one. Probably 50 yards long, 10 yards apart. Picnic tables in the shade. Kudos to Sacramento for this gem. Tips-​take your own targets, and beware some hay bales are kind of used up, and arrows will periodically penetrate full or partially, even at 45 pounds.

$ 5 fee to use the park made us commit to staying for hours. Heavy police presence and parents having little kids in water without life vests just goes to show what type of people enjoy this place. Beach was nice and clean — kid made a big hole that filled with water and occupied an hour of time.

Lots if people, water, dogs and boating. My grandson is having fun! Nice sunny day and relaxing after a trec across town. Jordan is riding his bike without training wheels and getting lots of experience and skill

People openly smoke marijuana and parents constantly don’t put life vest on their children. When you say something to the park rangers, they do absolutely nothing. It makes for a hard time to relax.

BOATERS BEWARE: the receiver hitch pin was stolen from my vehicle while parked with my boat trailer in the Discovery Park parking lot. A broken off key was also removed from our door lock on the truck. Thanks to some Good Samaritan boat folks, we were able to get a new pin and get back on the road.
There is definitely not enough security at this launch ramp, and forget about leaving your vehicle overnight. If anybody knows of a secure launch ramp at which you can feel safe leaving your vehicle overnight, please post a reply!

I’ve been going here since purchasing my boat and yearly launch pass last year. Large launching area for boats; four wide to be exact. The water is low so be careful. I gave it a single star due to the lack of staff on duty and patrols for safety. This place is starting to be less discovery and more of a homeless hangout.
Oh, just last week the spare tire was stolen off of my boat trailer while we were enjoying a day on the river. I’ve found another place to launch which is a bit further. I think it’s far enough so the transients will not want to trek out there.

Bathroom situation isn’t great. Otherwise, the park seems safe and has staff present when the park is open.
Our JOAD club uses the archery range every Saturday during the Spring, Summer and Fall but unless there is a tournament hosted at the park our team is typically off the field by 1 PM.

It’s not a beach. It’s a concert or event venue. Parking, bathrooms, picnic tables, dumpsters. Not a place I’d come to hang out, but perfect for concerts or events.

Came here for a family picnic and then all of a sudden bums came and started talking to a friend and i told them to go away how annoying the discovery park used to be a clean environment but not so much amymore the bums migrated to the park

Saw some guys drop off around 25 cats at the park today. Than began to feed them, which attracted several geese and skunk. Very odd scene. Once the man left and proceeded to drive off in his van, another came by and started to feed them as well. Discovery Park you don’t disappoint.

My boyfriend and I came here so that he could jet ski and I could hang out with our dog on the shore. We ended up paying, driving around the park a few times, and then leaving to go somewhere else. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty nice looking park, but it did not work for us. For one, the banks of the river near the boat launch are all really steep, with no flat shore. So the only place to set up chairs was quite a long walk away from the boat launch. Two, there is not trailer parking near the beach either, so we would have had to launch the ski, then since it was a really crowded park and it’s an expensive ski one of us would have to stay with it, while the other person would spend at least a half hour parking the truck then trying to take multiple trips to hike everything over to the beach. And thirdly, the beach was pretty packed, so then finding a good spot would have been difficult as well. Just not worth it for us. So we left and drove to Granite Beach instead, which worked wayyyy better for us.
If you have a boat and have no desire to hang out on shore, then this is a nice place. The park looks pretty well-​maintained and clean. The boat launch didn’t have a line and looked pretty nice. If we get a boat someday we will most likely come back here. Also, the prices to get in are very reasonable. Even with a boat you don’t pay more than $ 10.

Beautiful destination for plenty of family fun. Enjoy the American and Sacramento Rivers by sunbathing in the beach-​like sandy area. Launch your boat or jet skis and zip through the waterways of Old Sacramento. Bring your picnic gear, archery equipment, and bicycles to explore the various recreational options. Dogs are welcome when accompanied by a responsible adult and on leash. Walk to Old Sacramento and enjoy the Historic landmark and various museums, and enjoy a stroll to the State Capitol. Endless options to enjoy a beautiful day in Sacramento.

I used to think of this place as the park where I’d stop to gorge myself on blackberries before riding over the insanely-​scary green bridge, until one day, I saw a bunch of bikers riding over the bridge on the main road, and decided to follow suit. Omg… always ride on the road. It is a million times less scary than riding over the green metal pedestrian pathway.
Sadly, all of the berries were poisoned last year (deer control?), but before that, this was seriously the best place to just pull your bike over and have a snack before the last few miles to the lightrail station.
The park itself is huge, and is the only one where I’ve seen an archery area. There are tons of picnic tables and grilling areas, and during the summer, it seems like there’s always a birthday party going on, and it’s a safe place to be. Other than that, I wouldn’t want to hang out here alone.
The beach area is okay, except for on Rafting Gone Wild day, when there are three people per square foot. Definitely have your bike brakes checked out before riding through on that day.
This park is a great place to have a concert. I was here for Aftershock, and it just seemed like the most massive area. I couldn’t believe it was the same park that I ride past all the time.

First off if you want to park here it’s $ 5 and it’s cash only. When I pay $ 5 I expect my vehicle to be secure, the park to be fairly clean, with water and restrooms aplenty. But no, the facilities were closed with port-​a-​potties placed in few places round the area. No water except for drinking fountains. Nice.
This park might serve its purpose as a starting point for cycling around American River parkway, but for walking it is very disappointing. Either direction takes you to the trail crowded with cyclist and runners. Not exactly the perfect scenario if you have small kids and just came out to pleasurably stroll.
To make things worse the park is dirty with garbage everywhere and filled with homeless. There was a patrol car going around which made me feel safer but I still had a slight concern if my vehicle will be broken into.
The only reason that I might come back here is with my bicycle to do the bike trail. As far as walking there are many better and safer options out there. That don’t charge $ 5 for parking. And if they do then they at least accept credit cards so I don’t have to drive 2 miles to the ATM.

Great archery range that’s perfect for beginners and experts alike.
I recently (2 weeks ago) started shooting here at the archery range and am really liking it. It’s never crowded and you don’t see unsupervised kids running around. I’ve spent many hours there, and so far have never had an unpleasant experience. Although there are homeless people around, they never get in the way.
The range extends to a maximum range of 70 meters, which is more than enough for most shooters. I’ve been told this is the range where a lot of competitions are held for recurve and compound matches.
I’m become such a fan that I bought an annual park pass to shoot. Without a pass it’s $ 5 per day (but the pass can be used at any Sac county park)

This past Saturday, a few of us decided to search out an adventure and after realizing how difficult it is to locate a place to park and enjoy the river, we found ourselves at Discovery Park.
I was pretty excited to check this place out. It’s so big and I have driven thru and past it so many times. I wasn’t surprised that there was a fee to park, but it was a little higher than I expected. Once we pulled up and found a parking space, we hauled our chairs, towels and ice chest down the steep embankment toward the river thinking that we would at least be able to find a nice spot to chill.
Ugh… this place is so dirty. Dirty as in gross. As in, broken beer bottles, cigarette butts, torn up dirty clothes, old used bbq charcoals randomly strung about and what appeared to be a broken tail light of some sort??? Eww. I know this park is more known for boating and «kickin’ it» but you would think paying $ 5 just to get thru the gate would mean someone is going around picking up the trash.
I did think the rope swing was a nice touch, but overall, I don’t think I will be back here to play in the water unless I am floating around on a boat.
People, please pick up your trash and have a little respect for your city’s parks.