Colonel Summers Park

Colonel Sumners Park is so big! There’s tennis courts, a playground, a basketball court, soccer field and baseball field. The grass is always green and lush, and usually clean.
During Monday’s in the summer, they have Monday Funday. It’s like a party in park for all ages — no admission, no gates, just open fun. The surrounding neighborhoods are filled with high school students and college students. You can find year-​round burners practicing acts, hula-​hoopers, hack sackers, musicians, and artists.
It gets pretty rowdy, especially with the all-​night game of dodgeball on the tennis courts. It’s all in good fun though. If you find yourself wanting to go out, do it at least once!
Disclaimer: sometimes the party attracts vagrants. Be safe.

It’s the colonel. What more is there to say?! Park rangers can be a pain if you’re having a few drinks but just keep it low key and you’ll be fine. Homeless population has their corner.

Easily accessible, big grassy area, bball court, tennis courts, picnic tables, baseball diamond.
Families use it for picnics, neighbors use it to sunbathe and throw frisbees.
Nice little play area used by lots of kids in the area.
Park closes at 10 p.m.

This park is great!
The swing sets could facilitate debauchery a *little* better, they are not high enough, but this park is great!
Also, sorry.

It is a decent size park, with a nice playground. The swings are great. There were some people practicing Tai Chi in one of the areas. Another person was practicing her hoop skills on the basketball court close to the playground. There is a nice pavilion right next to the playground that is occupied by the homeless, so you cannot take advantage of that area. I felt very uncomfortable having my little kids running around there.

This park is mostly open fields. There’s a basketball court in one corner and a diamond in the other and a small playground. It get super packed for Monday Funday on mondays when the weather is nice, especially in the summer.

I live just a few blocks from this park. It is a great place to sit and enjoy the hot sun during the day and watch the community get together on monday evenings to play dodge ball. You do not know who you will meet when visiting this park, it is fantastic!

I love this park. I can drink here discreetly without being hassled by cops. My friendly dog can frolic off leash. There’s tennis /​basketball courts/​baseball diamond and pickup games of kickball. Movies in the park are also fun. Nothing like hearing dozens of drunk people yell, «Nobody puts baby in the corner». One of the funniest things I saw here were 2 older drunk homeless guys pushing each other on the swings and giggling their asses off. It was like they were 7 yr old drunk little boys again. That made my day.

I am lucky to live so close to a park… but I’m especially lucky to live close to this park. This is a great place to kick back and enjoy the rays, take your dog on a walk, play tennis or whatever. You know your in Belmont when you go to this park… it’s represented by just about every walk of life I could imagine (well, except the stuffy jerks who never put their toes in the grass a la Richard Gere in Pretty Woman).

This is definitely one of my favorite parks in town. This is where we’d come for hula hopping and lawn games for Sunday Funday in the summer, and it’s also the home to the super cutthroat Monday night dodgeball insanity that earned me a fractured finger. Good times!
I also have massive garden envy over the badass community garden plots they have fenced off on the south east side of the park. So awesome.

I feel so fortunate to live so close to such a wonderful neighborhood park! It doesn’t seem to matter what time of the year it is, if there is a break in the rain and some blue sky pokes out, there will be people taking full advantage of the park and its amenities.
Two tennis courts with a practice back-​board, a nice B-​ball court, a very active public garden, swings, and lots of green grass and beautiful trees.
One of my favorite PDX parks!

Hipsters everywhere. Drive by here on my way home from work — i know «total evil» for being employed and having a car.
Decent park, just unemployed hipsters plague the area. Once saw a junkie threaten to jump off a 1^st story ledge across the street. That was mildly amusing. Bike jousting is mildly entertaining, if only for the fact that there’s potential for a hipster to be gored.

Some people barhop. Others bedhop. I admit, there has been talk of me doing both.
But those are entirely different stories, because as Summer Double Oh-​Nine scorches Portlanders everywhere, it is all about the Park Hop. What is this Park Hop you speak of, you might ask, and I would tell you it works in a similar fashion as the two examples cited above (though more like the former). The criteria for park-​hopping is simple.
— You must bring a cooler of something chilled to drink.
— You must bring said cooler to a local park after dark.
— You may bring blankets, lawn chairs, and outdoorsy pets. But none of these are mandatory.
— You must not be squeamish about peeing outside. Many parks lock the doors of their public restrooms once night has fallen. Either you hold it, and risk your bladder exploding internally, or you pick a dimly lit slope.
The kickoff of Park Hop Double Oh-​Nine began at Laurelhurst Park for its proximity. In their haste to fill the cooler with ice and reach the park before the sun completely set, what the park hoppers forgot was the legions of mosquitoes that begin their blood-​sucking around dusk. The park hoppers set up shop, cracked opened their first beers al fresco, and could not ignore the specters of winged malaria-​carriers all over their exposed feet and arms. Park Hop Double Oh-​Nine now became an operative imperative.
Fortunately, the park hoppers remembered Colonel Summers Park on 20^th and Belmont. They recalled how popular a spot the park was for kickball teams, tennis players, bar softball leagues, hacky-​sack circles, couples reading as their dogs roam on the grass, and every other outdoor activity you can do without getting arrested. But when they reached Colonel Summers and propped their seats up next to the neighborhood garden, not another park hopper could be seen. Eventually, the quiet was replaced by the arrival of other park hoppers and the occasional backpack-​toting person. In exchange for a beer from the ever-​present cooler, one of the backpackers helpfully warned that the sprinklers would automatically turn on in sections. In other words, there was none of the sketchiness often associated with parks after dark in regions other than Southeast Portland. The two most harrowing events were the drive-​bys of three police cars, made innocuous by the quiet moving of the cooler, and a handstand performed by one of the park hoppers that resulted in that park hopper’s boyfriend getting kicked in his eye. To be fair, this unplanned black eye managed to be more entertaining than the prospect of getting a ticket from bored patrollers.
So although Park Hop Double Oh-​Nine needs to spread itself to other neighborhoods, the maiden visit to Colonel Summers enjoyed great success. There couldn’t be a better pubic park to drink beer and savor the cool night air with friends. Thus the motto of Park Hop Oh-​Nine:
It’s like we’re bums, but with homes when we’re done.

I love this park because it’s a great hangout for the people in my neighborhood. It’s packed when the weather is nice. I almost always see someone I know there. And how awesome are the little garden plots?

Great neighborhood park with all the amenities. Great in spring/​summer for its wide open spaces. Central to both Hawthorne and Belmont. Rumored to be next door to a house owned by one of Modest Mouse band members. Sometimes you can hear them practice.
Amenities: Grass, Shade & Sun, Restrooms, Picnic Tables, Hoops, Playground, Tennis Courts, Community Garden.
People: Hippies, yuppies, athletes, Harley-​Riders, Community Activists & Greens, children.

Great park for more active pursuits (basketball and tennis). They also have concerts here in the summer. Plus it is right next to a community garden (so there are lots of things to look at).

This park is so closely located to the Belmont, Hawthorne, and Buckman neighborhoods that it’s inevitable well-​used by the young Portlanders and families that live in the neighborhood.
Amenities include basketball courts, tennis courts, picnic area, plenty of green grass and wifi. (Only in Portland are the parks equipped with wifi).