Las Animas Park

This park has been overrun by thugs, drifters, and all kinds of drug addicted folks and the city of Gilroy seems content to let it happen. I brought my three year old here to play football and utilize the playground… that’ll be the last time I ever do that. Upon arrival at the skate park parking lot, a homie with no shirt on and a prominent gang tattoo on his chest stared me down. Great. I proceeded to the small kids playground area where there were several teenagers at the adjacent picnic tables with vacant expressions cussing loudly, drinking Modelo beer, and throwing around the «N» word. They got up and left with Dickies sagging well below their butts. Great. I decided to move over to the big kid’s playground where several «parents» were either on their cell phones or blasting loud rap music with a butt load of F words in it… not exactly what I want my daughter to hear. I glanced over at the bathroom and saw a couple unsavory characters going in. Of course, my kid had to go to the bathroom so I was like… yeah we’re leaving, not going into those crankster bathrooms. Of course, the original homie now had five other homies with him and they started smoking weed surrounding the car next to mine… great…so take my daughter to the drug needle infested bathroom or get mad dogged by homies? I chose to get mad dogged and luckily my daughter’s cuteness probably prevented me from getting my ass beat. Either way, this park is a complete disgrace as much of this city has become… the cops are not getting the job done clearly because these folks feel emboldened enough to do drugs and intimidate people out in the open. I am completely disgusted with this park and the city for allowing it to fall into such disgrace.

Definitely the best park in Gilroy. Three play areas for kids, bridges (great walking paths), baseball field, beautify weeping trees that surround the Wren/​Mantelli side of the park, off-​leash dog park, skate park.
Yes, there are some undesirable people at the park like anywhere else. Gilroy has done a lot of clean up in the past year.
It’s a great fun, safe place for your family.
Tip: If you want to rent party area you need to register through the parks department on their website. Plan ahead!

I’ll start with the one con:
A group of homeless people take over the east area of the park, so you can’t really hang out there. We were thinking of reserving the spot for a party, but decided we didn’t want to have to deal with the homeless group.
Otherwise, this park is great! It has a beautiful, huge grassy area that’s perfect for picnics and games. It also has a skate park that’s enclosed, which is great for teens and a playground that’s great for kids.