A DAY IN THE PARK

Knapp Ranch Park

25000 Kittridge St., West Hills

Size: 82 acres.

Facilities: Three baseball diamonds, outdoor basketball court, children’s play area, football field, picnic area, four tennis courts.

Hours: 9 a.m. to dusk daily.

Information: (818) 887-9800.

The rolling hills that make up Knapp Ranch Park’s trilevel facility once was the prize ranch of Walter Knapp. But in 1962, Knapp moved from the area and sold the land to the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department for roughly $200,000, with one stipulation--that the park be dedicated to the memory of Knapp’s son. Edwin Frank Knapp, who as a child loved playing on his father’s wooded ranch, was 21 when he was killed during World War II. Today, a plaque stands at the park’s entrance in memory of Edwin Knapp.

“It’s a quiet park, a very nice place to take a family or spend an afternoon,” said Al Goldfarb, a spokesman for the department. “And that’s how Walter Knapp wanted it to be used.”

Knapp Ranch Park, which is built on a hill that is graded into three flat planes, has an outdoor basketball court on its lowest level, tennis courts on its middle level and baseball diamonds at its peak. Nearly all the trees that made up the original ranch are still on the grounds, and there are picnic tables scattered among them. It does not have the community events that mark some parks, but it is one of the few places in the San Fernando Valley that still has the peace and tranquility of 20 years ago, Goldfarb said.