If you think you know all the parks in Lafayette, check your list again. Is Sky Hy Ranch’s neighborhood park on it?

Sky Hy might just be the least known view neighborhood in Lafayette. Accessed off Moraga Road, near the border of Lafayette and Moraga, this gated H.O.A. community has just 29 homes, all located along a circle of a street with two short offshoots.

Rick Crowder, long time Sky Hy resident, calls the neighborhood, a “hidden gem,” the kind of place where people move in and stay. With historic low turnover, it’s no surprise that neighbors know one another by name.

When we asked how many children currently live in Sky Hy, Rick did the math one child at a time, mentally walking the entire neighborhood counting them off, without ever leaving his home.

The park? That was a project for the neighborhood children fifteen or so years ago. They’d been playing on an undeveloped slip of land and wanted to fix it up. Families organized, and kids did some of the planting. The result speaks for itself.

Today, that land is a lovely neighborhood park with a circular trail, mature plants and trees, and a dry creek. It’s the kind of place that can both inspire imagination or quiet thought, depending on your mood.

Just one of the reasons that we agree with Rick: Sky Hy Ranch is a gem of a Lafayette neighborhood.