Tommy Hazouri Sr. Park (Mandarin Park)
Overview
Tommy Hazouri Sr. Park, traditionally known by locals as Mandarin Park, is an exceptional 38-acre recreational oasis situated along the expansive wetlands of Julington Creek in southern Jacksonville. The park features an outstanding array of outdoor facilities, including lighted tennis and pickleball courts, an extensive children's playground, and a scenic wooden boardwalk that extends gracefully over pristine marsh habitats. Boasting a premier public boat ramp and a fishing pier, it serves as a major hub for water sports enthusiasts looking to launch jet skis or fish for local largemouth bass. Surrounded by majestic hardwood trees draped in Spanish moss, the park offers a perfect blend of active family sports recreation and peaceful, riverfront nature therapy.
Practical Info
Travel Tips
- Coordinate deeper vessel launches within 1 hour of local high tide, and arrive before 07:00 on Saturdays to claim one of the highly competitive dedicated boat-trailer slots.
- Utilize the physical paddle-rack system to claim your court turn during peak 17:30-20:00 weekday hours, as the pickleball and tennis facilities operate strictly on a walk-up rotation.
- Avoid stepping off the wooden boardwalk structures onto the wet soil, as the low-lying nature trails flood rapidly and harbor active black widow spiders and aggressive deer ticks.
Reviews
- Perched along a wide bend of the St. Johns River, it features a highly professional public boat ramp and fishing pier, offering sweeping river vistas and stunning sunset views.
- The large on-site children's playground is fully equipped with modern canvas sunshades to block the baking sun, alongside safe rubberized flooring and top-tier equipment maintenance.
- The park offers multiple shaded walking paths winding through ancient oaks and hardwood hammocks, paired with BBQ-equipped picnic pavilions; entry and parking are completely free.
- Accessibility infrastructure is robust, with flat asphalt or concrete ramps linking the large lots, compliant restrooms, and the waterfront pier, making it ideal for multi-generational families.
- On sunny weekends, massive crowds of locals towing private boats flood the facility, causing boat ramps and parking lots to hit maximum capacity by 10 AM with dense crowds.
- Preserving extensive natural woodlands near calm river waters means mosquitoes, no-see-ums, and yellow flies swarm heavily at dawn or dusk, requiring full-body protection.
- Because the park footprint is sprawling, remote wilderness trail loops lack frequent directional signage, and individual far corners lack security cameras and overhead lighting.
- The highly popular tennis and pickleball courts suffer from a lack of structured on-site reservation management, requiring long, unstructured walk-up wait times during peak hours.