For most of the last three decades, if a Vacaville resident said "meet me at Lagoon Valley," there was exactly one place they could mean. That changed this month.
The name now points to two different locations a short drive apart, run by two different entities, serving two different purposes, and as of this September, both of them have a park you can point a car toward. One has been there since the city took over its management from Solano County in 1994. The other cut the ribbon on its own park this fall. If you've caught yourself double-checking which Lagoon Valley a neighbor meant, you're not imagining the confusion. It's new, and it's a direct result of timing.
The Lagoon Valley Everyone Already Knows
The original is the roughly 470-acre stretch of parkland off Pena Adobe Road that most longtime residents just call "the park." It's actually two adjoining pieces, Lagoon Valley Park and Peña Adobe Regional Park, managed together and reached from Interstate 80 at the Pena Adobe Road exit. The centerpiece is a genuinely old building: the Peña Adobe house dates to the 1840s, and it sits next to the Mowers-Goheen Museum, which opens to the public on the first Saturday of every month.
This is the park where you'll share the trail with grazing cattle, and the signage tells you as much: shut the gates behind you, don't approach the herd. The trail network has its own internal geography that locals learn by name rather than by looking at a map. Ray's Trail runs 2.6 miles, the longest loop in the system. Ascension Trail is the one mountain bikers mention first because of its grade. Jepson Trails, Buckeye Trail, Empinado Road, and Spreading Oak Trail round out a system that supports hiking, trail running, and mountain biking on the same ground, which is part of why the etiquette signage is so specific about yielding to equestrians and slowing down on blind curves.
Vehicles pay a $5 daily fee to park here, with multi-month and annual passes available at Three Oaks Community Center for people who come often enough to make that math work. Walkers, cyclists, and equestrians enter free. Dog owners get their own draw: a 30,000-square-foot off-leash dog park, plus a smaller fenced section for small dogs, that the city renovated and reopened in early 2025 with new drinking fountains and shade trees, according to the Daily Republic's coverage at the time.
The park also anchors the local running calendar. Loop the Lagoon, now in its 23rd year, stages out of the park each spring as a fundraiser run jointly by the Vacaville Public Education Foundation and Fleet Feet Vacaville, with 5K, 10K, and kids' distances. This year, a second event joined the calendar: the inaugural Pena Passage trail race, held in June, added a 30K option through the park's fire roads and single track, with proceeds benefiting NAMI Solano County. Two organized races in the same 2026 calendar year, both headquartered at the same trailhead, is new territory for a park this size.
The Lagoon Valley That Didn't Exist Five Years Ago
The second Lagoon Valley is a residential development a short distance away at Mount Royal Road, built adjacent to the original park's boundary and marketed by its developer as the Bay Area's first "conservation community." The development and the regional park share a name. The development and the regional park are separate places.
Construction is still underway. A CBS Sacramento report on the project put the count at roughly 150 homes built out of an approved total just over 1,000, built by Lennar and Taylor Morrison, with plans for an 18-hole golf course, an organic farm, and a town center still ahead. The developer says it has preserved more than 1,300 acres of surrounding open land, separate from the acreage inside the existing regional park next door.
Here's the part that actually created the naming problem. Last September, the development held a groundbreaking for its planned Event Center, with the mayor on hand and a temporary pickleball pop-up set up for the occasion, alongside model home tours from both builders. At the time of the groundbreaking, nobody was pointing anyone toward "the Lagoon Valley park" yet, because the development did not yet have one.
This September, that changed. The development's Fall Fest 2026 included a ribbon-cutting for a new, permanent Community Park, this time with pickleball courts that are actually built rather than popped up for a day, plus a preview of the future Event Center site. Mayor John Carli, Council members Sarah Chapman and Roy Stockton, and City Manager Savita Chaudhary all spoke at the ribbon cutting. For the first time, the private development has a park of its own to refer to, alongside the public one next door.
Two Parks, One Name
| The Regional Park | The Development's Park | |
|---|---|---|
| Reached via | Pena Adobe Road, off I-80 | Mount Royal Road |
| Been open since | City-managed since 1994 | Ribbon cut fall 2026 |
| Signature landmark | 1840s Peña Adobe house and Mowers-Goheen Museum | Newly built pickleball courts |
| Cost to park | $5 daily, passes available | No fee, it's a residential amenity |
| Who's there | Hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians, grazing cattle | New homeowners and model home visitors |
| What's still coming | Nothing structural, same trail system | Event Center, golf course, organic farm, town center |
How to Actually Tell Someone Which One You Mean
If you're giving directions or just trying to keep your own weekend plans straight, a few quick tells sort this out fast.
If cattle, an adobe house, or a $5 parking fee make sense in the sentence, you're talking about the regional park off Pena Adobe Road. If pickleball courts, model homes, or a still-under-construction Event Center make sense instead, you mean the development off Mount Royal Road. The regional park charges to park because it's a public facility funded partly by that fee. The development's park doesn't charge, because it's an amenity for people who already live there or are touring homes.
It's a small distinction until it isn't. Tell a friend to meet you at "the Lagoon Valley dog park" and you'd better specify, because as of this fall, that phrase alone doesn't get them to the right gate.
What's Still Ahead for Each
The regional park isn't changing. Its trail system, museum hours, and cattle remain as described above, and nothing in the current planning points to that shifting. The inaugural Pena Passage race is a new addition to the calendar, not a change to the park's ongoing operations. The development next door has more building to do. The Event Center that broke ground last September is still under construction with no confirmed opening date in what's publicly available. The golf course's public, private, or semi-private status won't be settled until roughly a year before it opens for play, per the developer's own FAQ. The organic farm and town center are still ahead.
For now, Vacaville has two Lagoon Valleys, one with a hundred and eighty years of history and one that just turned one corner of its name into something you can actually visit. Knowing which is which is a small piece of local knowledge, but it's the kind that saves you from sending a friend to the wrong exit off I-80.
If you're curious how neighborhoods like this one continue to shape daily life around Vacaville, or if you're weighing a move into the area and want a clearer read on what's nearby, Jared Labarga is always glad to talk through it. Let's Connect.
