Virtually all of Ventura County's parks have been closed since last week's storm, and they will remain so until next week while cleanup work continues.
"Even though there were no major facility damages, there was a lot of erosion and mud in the parks," said Andy Oshita, operations manager for the Ventura County Parks Department.
The mud that slithered into the parks is being lifted up and hosed off.
"We scrape it up and stockpile it and put it in places we don't use," Oshita said.
Once it dries out it will be used to fill sinkholes or for other projects that call for dirt.
Oshita said he had no idea how much the damage would cost to repair.
"Eventually we'll have it when FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) declares it a natural disaster area," he said.
Hardest hit of all of the county's 18 parks were two of its golf courses, Rustic Canyon Golf Course in Moorpark and Soule Park Golf Course in Ojai.
Rustic Canyon lost the entire fairway on hole No. 7 and suffered damage to the front nine, most notably to holes 4, 5 and 6.
"We are closed," said Craig Price, who runs the course and leases land from the county. He expected the back nine to open for play next weekend.
"It's mostly massive deposits of mud," Price said. "In some places it's 4 to 5 feet deep, so you can't just strip it off."
The Philadelphia-based architects who designed the course have flown out to help with repairs.
"We have to regrass it and everything," Price said.
The cost to repair Rustic Canyon is expected to run close to $1 million. Price said insurance wouldn't cover it, so he was hoping Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger could get disaster relief money.
In the past year, Rustic Can-yon has been closed three times because of high water flows, Price said, because the 2003 fires in the Moorpark area left little vegetation around the course to help soak up the water.
"So when it rains, down it comes," he said.
Don Miller, general manager at Soule Park Golf Course, said the lake that distributed water around his course is gone. So too are the spaghettilike connections to the lake that once wove around the course, keeping it watered during the dry summer months. A couple of damaged greens have been replaced with temporary ones. Fairways on holes 7 and 15 suffered damage, with streams eating away at the banks.
Last week the course was offering play with just six holes: 1, 8, 9, 10, 17 and 18, but Miller said all 18 holes were up and running again. Holes No. 7 and 15 have temporary greens in place but are open for play.
Miller doesn't have a value for the damages yet but expects it to run in the millions.
"It's extensive," he said.
Access to the bridges on holes 2 and 16 had been disrupted because footpaths were washed out, but, Miller said, that was repaired.
Oak Park, a small park between Moorpark and Simi Valley, was open Tuesday. Jim Bowles, Oak Park's park host, said the RV parking area had flooded but has since been cleared.
The storms also closed the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area for about 36 hours, superintendent Woody Smeck said. The area has reopened. "Things dried up pretty quickly," Smeck said.