Rancho San Rafael's Dog Park Set to Reopen This Weekend

Julie's dogs love to play outdoors. But since Rancho San Rafael's dog park closed, Hidden Valley has been their new park of choice. 

"This park particularly on the weekend has been packed," said Julie. 

Sometimes sharing space with 40 or 50 other dogs. But that might change come this Saturday when a different park reopens.

"That's been the big question since last summer, when is it going to open again, when is it going to open again," said Andy Mink. 

Mink is excited to be the bearer of good news this time around. 

"Right now about two-thirds of it is doing real well. The grass is coming in," said Mink. 

The dog park of Rancho San Rafael will opening this Saturday. About 20 acres of it anyways. The lower, most eastern side of the pasture will remain closed through at least mid-April. 

"We miss it over there for sure," said Emily Pettit. 

Emily's dogs Simon and Nyx are small dogs but love to run around too. 

"We know the public has been super patient," said Mink. 

It takes time to rebuild a worn down field. 

"It really helped by keeping people from pounding down what was viable still and then keeping it viable," said Mink. 

The added snow and rain this year has been a blessing.

"We're really excited that San Rafael is going to reopen. I like how big it is," said Julie. 

Lots of room for dogs to play. 

"I have two small dogs but it's really fun to get them socialized with all the big dogs over there," said Emily. 

"They'll enjoy the running though," said Julie. 

The park was expected to remain closed until late spring but this Saturday our dogs will be able to run free once again.

(The multi-use pasture at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park was closed last spring due to lack of water. The irrigation for the multi-use pasture comes from the Highland Ditch which is fed from the Truckee River. However, the Federal Water Master shut the Highland Ditch off because of low water flows in the Truckee. In order to preserve the pasture for future use, the pasture was temporarily closed to all public use, including off-leash dogs, for the remainder of 2015.)