The narrow floor of the valley includes a visitor center, a small museum/animal rehab facility, picnic areas, playgrounds, lawns, sand volleyball pits, mineral springs, lush plant life, woodlands, creek play opportunities, and occasional group camping.

[2] Another black rock with an estimated weight of two thousand tons near the mouth of Penitencia Creek canyon was supposed to be one of the largest meteorites in the world.

This was the first internal combustion locomotive built in the western United States, though it was only a limited success and was returned to Best in 1892.

Passengers paid 25 cents to ride to the park on street cars pulled by steam dummy locomotives.

The narrow-gauge route was replaced on 2 September 1913 by the standard gauge interurban Peninsular Railway running up Berryessa Road from a connection with the downtown streetcars on 17th Street.

[5] From 1921 until unknown, the Santa Clara County Council of the Boy Scouts of America was given exclusive access to 15 acres (61,000 m2) in the park.

By the 1960s, the park attracted so many visitors from the rapidly growing Santa Clara Valley that its facilities became overburdened and the natural scenery was damaged.

El Niño winter storms of February 1998 caused dozens of landslides which precipitated the complete closing of the park for nearly six months.

On February 20, 2017, heavy rain storms caused fallen trees, landslides and flooding resulting in the park to close.

A very early 20th century advertising brochure listing the names of eleven physicians suggested: "...a remarkable spring furnishing a mixture of sulphur, magnesia, and arsenic, which has been found very beneficial in cases of rheumatism, Bright's disease, and other kidney and stomach troubles and malarial affections."

At the end of the parking lot is a metal gate which requires a security code number to continue on the public road.

On the valley floor, in the moist areas along Penitencia Creek, bigleaf maple, white alder, and western sycamore provide shade for the abundant ferns.The most common native species of the park include California fuchsia, California wild rose, black sage, hummingbird sage, and blackberry.

Larger wildlife includes black-tailed deer, gray foxes, bobcats, and the occasional mountain lions.

Smaller wildlife would include the darkling beetle, Eurypelma californicum (tarantula), black widow, and Pacific tree frog.