Mike Ward Community Park – Woodbridge

I’m graduated from Woodbridge in 2013 and this is one of my favorite places to take a talk. It is peaceful and relaxing. I usually park across from the street at movie 5 theater then I walk over the bridge and walk around the lake. A beautiful place located in the heart of Irvine!

One of the best places to come and relax with the family. It will connect you to north and south lake with the Woodbridge shopping center right in the middle. There are basketball and Racquet ball courts with covered seating and bbqs. The lawn is vast and has a great view of south lake.
Woodbridges 4^th of July fireworks can be seen perfectly from this park. Such a beautiful and well maintained park.

Great place to walk your dog. Lots of birds, ducks, turtles, etc. Everyone had their dogs on a leash. Good thing too, since I like to pick fights with other dogs. Big ones especially. There’s also lots of seating area to rest, sit and ponder while looking over the lake.

I found this place on accident as I was driving around Irvine. I was shocked to see in the middle of Irvine, a huge lake and gazebo while I was on the road. I immediately had to u-​turn and find a place to park and explore.
There is a huge park area and there are tennis courts and basketball courts here. What I liked most though, was walking across the bridge that goes over the street to take you to the Lake area. It’s a really relaxing spot and beautiful scenery. You can’t walk much around the lake as there are parts where you are in the housing community, but I managed to find my away around.
You’ll see ducks and geese and it’s always nice to see water when you least expect it smack in the middle of Irvine. We had a quick picnic at the gazebo and walked around a bit. Nice time.

Pretty. Located by a community senior center, a lake and a large open green area. There are restrooms and water fountains and a few sitting areas. Basketball courts and handball courts.

This is where the Lexus LaceUp Running Series took place. This running series is one of a kind. They go all out for their runners. Providing us nice medals, great tech shirts, awesome water bottle and a hell of a beer opener. In addition the food is delicious and beer is cold. All this for $ 20 on groupon. Can’t beat that price.
Now the park:
Great little neighborhood park. I would say more but I was trying to get to the finish line.

Beautiful park to come and watch the sunset with the family and relax after a day of hard work at the office.

The park itself has basic things I will never use, a tennis court, handball court, and other sportsy areas, but what I primarily came here for was the lake!
Parking is great, though my dog and I went on a Monday at around 2pm. There is a bridge that goes across Alton St leading to the front of the lake, unfortunetly there is not much of the lake that you can walk around if you park at Mike Ward community park. There is a cute gazebo and some benches, but you can’t walk around most of the lake because of lake front houses.
We did find however, that if you park at the parking lot on Blue lake st or the parking lot for the tennis courts by Clearlake st and Springbrook st, you can get to more lakefront paths. Otherwise you have to walk around some residential places which are nice… but we just came for the lake!

What an awesome place in Irvine! I randomly saw this place when I went to the woodbridge theatre and made a mental note to come back sometime. I had a book that I wanted to finish and wanted to read in a serene place. This place was perfect. Incredibly scenic and peaceful. I parked in the woodbridge theatre parking lot and used the bike path to walk over. The lake is so calm and you immediately feel at one with your surroundings. They have a great gazebo for photos. Can’t believe that this lake existed in Irvine all this time. I saw people hydro biking and kayaking.

A to go spot if you ever find youre self wanting to vent and have a moment with youre self or youre couple or whom ever. I feel the atmosphere is extremly friendly and the water is so clear and blue. I say if you like to ever find a good place to just hang out and talk this is the spot.

I absolutely love this place. Its a good place to chill and play some games. This place has basketball courts and racquet ball courts. This place even have a huge field area for some other games. Unlike other parks this park is not so crowded .
The park has a lake there also where you can feed the ducks.
Lake view is really awesome especially in the morning. Overall a nice atmosphere to relax.

One of the most beautiful spots in Irvine. The park features a rolling hillside overlooking the South Lake and Gazebo. We held a wedding reception right there on the beautiful lawn. It was a wonderful occasion. The possibilities are endless.

Plenty of benches all around the lake and a few different spots to gather and feed the ducks. This is a family friendly place, and it was the perfect setting for my mommy meetup group to go on a stroller walk. There is even a water fountain for people and the pooches. A+ for being dog friendly too! There is a gazebo to look out at the water and a bridge. You can easily walk over here after a movie or a meal at Woodbridge Center.

This park is a beautiful and calm place to do pretty much anything at any age! I like to go for RUNS on the east side of the lake. On my runs, I see other runners, people WALKING their dogs, people playing TENNIS, people paddle boating, people feeding the birds, photographers, bikers, kids playing, teens hanging out, etc.
It is also a fantastic place for PHOTOGRAPHY. I got some amazing shots from the south side of the lake this morning. I could see the lake, the bridge and the snowy mountains in the background. Pedestrians stopped to take pictures with their phones, too. Since the lake is north-​south, the east to west sun doesn’t interfere with the shots too much. Sunsets are always stunning if you’re on the northeast side of the lake or on the bridge.
To the north of the lake, there’s an expansive field, racketball courts and picnic tables, where I often see families and groups holding events. It’s fairly common to see small groups of youngsters throwing around a football or playing soccer.
I give this park 5 stars because it really is as good as it gets! It’s one of the most beautiful community parks I’ve seen and I’ve lived all over California!

This park was overall pretty chill they have racquet ball courts, basketball courts, a huge field area and thats pretty much it If they have a playground i couldn’t find it but then again it was dark and i was kinda distracted by wanting to go chill by the lake.
The reason i’m giving them the rating i am is because they have the amenities i listed above and they were lighted at night which is totally cool especially on a warm summer night!
Overall this was a fun little walk through the park across the bridge and over to the lake to kick it on the gazebo.
I’m sure we will be back here at one point to take a stroll as its really close to the $ 2 theater and its always good to take a walk before your going to be sitting for a few hours.

This park is huge! Lots of open space and really clean. Nice and quiet so you can definitely enjoy a relaxing day here. There’s a basketball court here and some racket ball courts. If you go across the bridge, there’s a beautiful and peaceful lake here. Come here to watch the sunset. It’s a pretty nice view.

I’ve been here a few times with friends because we were bored at home and not doing anything. Simply put, it’s a beautiful park! (as long as you don’t look too closely at the water… hahahaah). The lake is probably the main attraction with a trail outside of it. Ducks and geese are in abundance and sometimes you see people canoeing or doing other water activities in the lake. It’s definitely a nice place to go on a run or even take a nice walk! You often see people walking their dogs too. The park is really clean and quiet. It’s also near woodbridge 5, which is the dollar movie theater across the street! My friends and I just watched Nonstop there, so they have pretty new movies if you want to check em out! :)

This is a great family park.
I came here once for a music festival — lots of lawn seating. There are basketball courts, racquetball courts that work well for lacrosse practice, a volleyball court, picnic areas and the amphitheater.
There’s something for everyone and the park is kept so clean. You can ride your bike through the park and loop around both the north lake and south lake. it’s a nice little bike adventure if you want to get out and exercise. OR you can stroll hand in hand with a loved one and get some fresh air.

2014 Unilocal 365 CHALLENGE — ¹⁷³⁄₃₆₅
Really beautiful park and lake! My boyfriend and I have been going to this area for years. We’ve only walked around the lake a few times, but it’s beautiful and is so quiet and peaceful. I never see it ever crowded or busy, the water is always super blue, and it is SO clean! Not a piece of litter or trash in sight! I actually haven’t walked around the ENTIRE lake, because it’s really big. I’ve never actually seen the park part of the area, but I’m sure it’s just as nice :)
We like to go to the shopping center across the street on Barranca, where we get lunch/​dinner at the Ruby’s Diner there. Their window booths have a beautiful view of the lake outside and it’s really something special.
I highly recommend coming here if you wanna check out the beautiful lake, or take advantage of the park/​grass areas. 5 stars!

My oasis…
Always serene, consistently beautiful, and often private…
Ducks, geese, swans are often present for your viewing pleasure; they’re also looking for handouts (Warning: Don’t feed the animals. They’re on a special diet)
…still, who could resist?! There are times when some bread crumbs have inadvertently drop here or there…
It’s roughly four square miles and has two large man-​made lakes at its center. Each lake (North & South) has a lagoon /​beach club, a dock facility to rent human-​driven pedal boats, kayaks, canoes, sailboats, and hydro-​bikes.
Summertime connects everyone in the community. Concerts, outdoor movies and various planned activities bring residents and friends together. Very reminiscent of the old drive-​in theaters of the baby boomer era.
Great people-​watching opportunities… my personal favorite ;-)