Skip Shopping Crowds, Enjoy Green Friday Instead
Start a new Thanksgiving holiday weekend tradition. After turkey day, forget about elbowing through crowds of holiday shoppers. Head outside for Green Friday.
County Parks is offering some free activities beginning on Friday, Nov. 28 and other family-friendly events throughout the holiday weekend.
If you’d like some quality time with the family and a chance to walk off Thanksgiving calories, add Green Friday to your calendar. As a bonus, $5 day-use parking fees at all County Parks will be waived that day.
You can join a ranger and local biologist on a mile-long hike in Spring Valley or you, and the kids can check out a Discovery Touch Table with some live animals in Del Mar.
On Saturday, make your own hiking stick in Bonita and use it for a guided nature hike.
Kid-friendly Story Trails return this year for the holiday weekend. County Parks teams up with the County Library to offer a new way to foster reading.
Storybook pages are placed on signs along the paths of the more popular, kid-friendly trails. Children can read the pages as they walk along. The books vary and some will be in English and Spanish.
Want to do some good for the environment? Show your kids how it’s done by volunteering to beautify County Parks.
No experience is required and supplies and how-to instructions are provided.
These family-friendly activities range from tree plantings to rebuilding an observation deck, painting fencing, planting, a trail workday, and a cleanup and hike.
Here are details on the holiday weekend events:
Friday, Nov. 28
- Nature Hike at Dictionary Hill County Park
- A one-mile hike with a ranger and a biologist to explore the California coastal sage scrub habitat and a view from the 1,500 ft. summit.
- 10-11:30 a.m.
- 1710 Buena Vista Ave, Spring Valley, CA, 91977
- Meet at the trail head
- Discovery Touch Table at San Dieguito County Park
- Discovery table with live animals, including a king snake and a blue-tongued skink
- 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- 1628 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Del Mar, CA 92014
Saturday, Nov. 29
- Hiking Stick Workshop at Sweetwater Summit Regional Park
- Make your own hiking stick, then take a guided nature hike.
- 10 a.m.
- 3218 Summit Meadow Road, Bonita, CA 91902
Friday, Nov. 28 – Sunday, Nov. 30: Story Trails
- Participating Parks:
- Adams County Park (Valley Center)
- Dos Picos County Park (Ramona)
- El Monte County Park (Lakeside)
- Estrella County Park (Spring Valley)
- Felicita County Park (Escondido)
- Flinn Springs County Park (El Cajon)
- Lake Morena County Park (Campo)
- Lincoln Acres County Park (National City)
- Louis A. Stelzer County Park (Lakeside)
- Otay Lakes County Park (South County)
- Pine Valley County Park (Pine Valley)
- Potrero County Park (Potrero)
- Guajome Regional Park (Oceanside)
- San Dieguito County Park (Del Mar)
- Santa Ysabel Nature Center (East County)
- Spring Valley County Park (Spring Valley)
Friday, Nov. 28 – Sunday, Nov. 30: Volunteer
- Friday, Nov. 28
- Saturday, Nov. 29
- Sunday, Nov. 30
Of course, you don’t have to wait until Green Friday to enjoy County Parks. You can enjoy the Upside of Outside all year round.
County Parks has 159 facilities to choose from including local and regional parks, campgrounds, historic sites, fishing lakes, ecological preserves, a botanic garden and 389 miles of trails.