California’s newest state park will open near Modesto in June

California has a new state park for the first time in a decade, and it’s in the Central Valley.

The park is located on the Dos Rios tract west of Modesto right in between Highway 99 and Interstate 5 near the confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers. The 1,600-acre site is surrounded by vast almond orchards and dairy pastures. 

Dos Rios is one of only a handful of state parks in an area of California that doesn’t have many options in the immediate area. If you live in Modesto or Stockton, you have a significant drive if you want to visit a state park. The new park will soon be just a short drive away, with areas for hiking and picnicking and plans for swimming and boating access in the future.

Yesterday, on Earth Day, Governor Gavin Newsom, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta officially dedicated the park at a ceremony. Dos Rios is now California’s 281st state park and officially opens to visitors June 12.

Armando Quintero, director of California State Parks, spoke with Insight host Vicki Gonzalez about the new park and its importance. 

This Q&A has been edited for length, clarity and flow.

Interview Highlights 

Can you describe exactly where Dos Rios is?

If you're driving South on Highway 99 and you're passing Modesto and look off to your right, you'll see acres and acres of ag land. And if you're driving south on Highway 5 and look to your left, you'll see acres and acres and miles of AG land and Dos Rios is right out in the middle of that. And it is where the Tuolumne River, which originates in Yosemite, and the San Joaquin River meet. It's really only about 15 minutes west of Modesto on Highway 32.

I also heard the name Dos Rios Ranch. Is that the proper name?

This new unit does not have a proper name yet. It was a ranch and 11 years ago, River Partners, a non-profit group, purchased it from the Lions Ranch family and what they've actually done is restored the landscape of the 1,600 acre area back to Native vegetation. In a way what this park will be is a return of a lush Central Valley Natural landscape where for the last 100 years it has been ranched.

This is the largest public-private floodplain restoration project in California. This seems like a significant deal among the more than 200 state parks that already exist in the state.

It really is, and in this time of the need to find new places to store water, a floodplain actually means that what that does in this case is when we have heavy rains like we've had the last few years and the waters and the landscapes flood in areas like this, it actually recharges groundwater. So this is a park where not only will there be recreation, but it'll actually be adding to the water supply that California is so sorely need.

Given that it's been a decade since we've had a state park, what goes into finding and designating a state park?

We're always looking for opportunities for new parks and additional lands that we can add to parks. There's an ongoing list … When the governor asks that we look for the next park to nominate, we sent a team out into the Central Valley where they located a number of areas. And what we were looking for in this instance was a place that would serve a Central Valley Community. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom breaks ground at a new state park in a decade on Monday April 22, 2024 at the Dos Rios property, in Modesto, Calif.AP Photo/Sophie Austin

Because when you look at a map of state parks of California, it's like a necklace around the state. It's all along the coast and then up around the base of the mountains to the north and to the south. But the Central Valley — which has such a huge population of Californians and a population of Californians that really serve the rest of the world with all of the agricultural work there — that really doesn't have a lot of parks. 

We looked and we identified a number of areas, but Dos Rios rose to the top in terms of being the new park that could offer water activities and shade in times of heat events. So it was just an amazing combination of opportunities.

What is special about the Central Valley?

We're going to see a return of an ancient landscape in California where it really looks like the savannas of Africa, where you have millions of birds during the migrating season. We're already seeing beaver and river otters returning to this area and native species are starting to return without anybody having to reintroduce them to the area. Deer have shown up and there's of course raccoons and foxes and all kinds of creatures that are already returning. I think what this really will give all of us is an opportunity to walk into a time of the California Central Valley from 200 years ago and it is really a different world. 

The park officially opens to the public on June 12. What happens between now and now?

We continue to work on basic services that'll be available for the public. When the park first opens people will be able to do some hiking, there's shade structures and we have restrooms and things like this. It's [a] time when we’ll be able to orient people to the area. But we are about to start a public planning process where we're going to be inviting the public to come in and take a look and say to the public what would you like to do with this? Because that's how parks are actually created. It's through public engagement. We're going to be holding meetings and various workshops to see how we plan out the future of this park.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Armando Quintero's name. It has been corrected.