South Lake Park

This is another peaceful, beautiful, OP park. There is a 0.4 mile paved path around the fishing lake, two piers, a peninsula with covered tables, a play area, restrooms, a drinking fountain, parking areas, and a basketball ½ court, The views are wonderful, with plenty of shaded areas, and plenty of geese and birds.

This should be a five star review! But the park needs a few tweaks to get there. It’s a nice suburban park with a large pond (it’s not really a lake) that people can fish in and there are lots of waterfowl to watch. There’s a great walking path that goes around the perimeter of the pond. They recently revamped the playground area with lots of fun new equipment for the kiddies. There are some great big old trees there which is a rare sight in suburbia. All in all, a mostly nice place to spend an afternoon.
If I could change anything about this park, there would be two things at the top of my list. The first one is the trash barrels. There are big ugly metal barrels with no lids. Of course, when it’s windy, the trash from the barrels blows all over the park. I can’t imagine that less hideous/​more functional trash receptacles would be a huge cash outlay, but this would be a major improvement. The second thing I would change is the picnic benches. The picnic benches have really seen better days. Someone will eventually get injured on one of them because the wood is rotting, termite-​infested and likely very weak from a lack of proper care.
This park is very convenient to home and a definite favorite. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the city will continue to invest in improvements for this park.

Great park with a small lake and a great children’s playground. Yet another reason why you have to concede the city planners of Overland Park knew what the hell they were doing. Plentiful parks are part of what makes a city worth living in. This is just another one of those unpretentious neighborhood parks that dominate Overland Park.

One of my favorite parks in all of Overland Park. Tucked away in the midst of the northern part of the city, this little suburban oasis has a few different amenities to offer: a substantial playground for the kids, plenty of picnic shelters, a half basketball court and, of course, the lake.
I’m not really sure how one differentiates between lakes and ponds, but this particular body of water seems a bit on the «pond-​ish» side. It’s rather small, and I can’t imagine it’s all that deep. That said, it’s a body of water in the midst of a city that has few of them, and hence a welcome change of scenery. A nice semi-​shaded trail wraps around the lake, and a diverse (for Overland Park, at least) collection of folks can be found making the circuit on a daily basis. I’m always surprised by the large number of people fishing at the park, though I hear you can catch sucker, crappie and carp here. All in all, it’s a pretty idyllic little suburban park, and due to its location, has something of a «hidden gem» feel to it.
When The Wife™ and I are needing a little fresh air, and don’t want to venture far beyond our mid-​JoCo enclave, a trip to South Lake Park is always at the top of our list.

This is a nice little park I drove by a thousand times before I had kids. It has a little pond with all kinds of ducks and geese and a little asphalt type bike/​running trail.
I first stopped by this park when I was riding my bike through the neighborhood. I did a couple of laps on the bike path which couldn’t have taken more than 5 minutes which was kind of a dud. It’s probably more enjoyable to walk it.
But on my ride I noticed the little playground for the kids. The playground is perfect for a parent to bring multiple kids to and not worry about them running off. It has a 5 ft. wall on one side that snakes down on the other 2 sides so you can stand at one vantage point and see all the exit points. I have 3 kids 5 and under, they can do all the jungle gym equipment and slides by themselves so I can stake out my spot and make sure they don’t run off or something. It’s a much bigger task to keep an eye on all 3 of them and have to worry about them running off in a direction I can’t see. This is the only park I’ve found like that so it’s perfect for us.
The Canadian geese can be a little agressive, just like real Canadians. We never feed the ducks or geese because of the signs saying not to. I think that just pisses them off though, like not tipping a waitress or something. They seem to be saying «how’s about something, you know, for the effort». Unfortunately I’m not the Dalai Lama and can’t offer total awareness on the geese’s death bed or, for that matter, make a piece of stale bread appear out of nowhere. I’m pretty sure the other patrons of the park ignore the signs imperiling all of those who try to obey nature.
For those wishing to picnic, plenty of tables are around as well as plenty of space by the lake to lay down a blanket. I’ll eat inside so I won’t be bothering you.

For a smaller park, this is a pretty nice little place. I think this is one of those cases where you have to go and see for yourself. The paved path around the lake is actually .45 miles, so almost ½ a mile. There are typically more Canada geese than ducks, but this depends a lot on what time of year you come and what time of day. A bonus is that in the spring you get to see the baby geese being herded around. They are so ugly and awkward it makes them kind of cute.
Notes: When the geese are there in force, you will need to dodge a lot of goose poo walking around the track.
Also, don’t mess with the geese. They would be more than happy to chomp on your hand. The threat level goes up when their goslings are around.
The one downside to this place is that it is not secluded. There are houses surrounding the lake, and a fairly major street on the south side.
p. s. At night I have seen an owl in the trees, and occasionally you might see a blue heron.

This is my favorite little park in North Overland Park. South Lake is a smaller nieghborhood park, about 5 acres or so. There is a lake in the middle that is stocked with fish. There is always a few people fishing and once I actually saw a woman catch a pretty big fish. Around the lake is a tar walking trail that is about a ¼ mile around. it is great that I can measure my distance and around each bend of the circle is something different so they scenery never gets old.
There are a ton of ducks and geese and there are signs that ask not to feed them. I thought this was sad at first as feeding ducks stale bread was fun when I was little. But I soon understood why as giant birds would come quacking at me while I was walking begging for food. They freaked Mawell out, but over time we got used to them and they realized I was foodless and left me alone.
There are several basketball courts and a nice playground for the kiddies!