Balboa Park is a gigantic (490 hectares) urban cultural park in San Diego, full of recreational areas, natural greenery, flowerbeds, gardens, paths and numerous cultural facilities. It is home to several museums and theaters, as well as the world-famous San Diego Zoo. The park is also home to several outdoor recreational and sports outlets, as well as restaurants. Honestly speaking, if you seriously set out to see everything there is to see, a week wouldn’t be enough.
The park was dedicated in 1835, making it one of the oldest public parks in the United States. The park was named in honor of Spanish navigator and explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa. In 1977, the park itself and the historic buildings that lined it for the 1915-1916 Panama-California Exposition and the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition were declared a National Landmark District.
Balboa Park is considered a major attraction not only for the city, but for the entire region. It features a variety of old and sometimes rare plants, many of which were planted by famed American landscape designer, botanist and gardener Kate Sessions.
El Prado, a long, wide boulevard with a promenade, runs through the center of the park. Most of the buildings that adorn it were built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. It is on El Prado that most of the park’s museums and cultural centers are located. It is also home to the Reflection Pond and a beautiful fountain.
Even if you just list everything this park has without going into detail, it would make an impressive paragraph. There is a botanical garden, Japanese Friendship Garden, the old 1935 cactus garden, Alcazar Garden, Australian Garden, California National Plant Garden, Casa del Rey-Moro Garden, George Washington Children’s Ethnobotanical Garden, Desert Garden, Florida Canyons National Plant Sanctuary, Inez-Grant-Parker Memorial Rose Garden, Marston House Garden, Palm Canyon Garden, Health Plant Garden, Veterans Memorial Garden, and Zoro’s Garden.
The list of museums in Balboa Park is hardly less impressive than the list of gardens. There is the Aerospace Museum, the Art Museum, the Automobile Museum, the Hall of Champions, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Photography, the Timken Art Museum, the Veterans Museum, the George Washington Memorial Marston House, the Museum of Living Artists, the San Diego Museum of Man, the San Diego Railroad Modeling Museum, the Mingei International Museum, the de la Raza Cultural Center, the Reuben Fleet Science Center, and the San Diego History Center.
The park is practically square and is located in the heart of the city. It adjoins Sixth Avenue to the west, Apas Street to the north, 28th Street to the east, and Russ Boulevard to the south. Balboa Park is so large that several freeways run through it: for example, Highway 163 was built through Cabrillo Canyon in 1948 (it goes under the Cabrillo Bridge) – and this stretch of highway is considered one of the finest park roads in the state. The main entrance to the park is just across the Cabrillo Bridge.