By Brooke Guthrie
If you have children who like to spend the summer on the swings, Olympia parks do not disappoint. To help mom stretch her legs at the park, or to burn off pent up energy, many of these parks also have a walking or running trail. These are some of our favorite City of Olympia parks featuring swing sets. All of the parks include bathrooms.
Priest Point is a historical park that dates to the 1840s and has many amenities, including handicapped accessible swings. Amenities include a rose garden, an extensive trail system that descends to the beach and a great boat play structure. The South Sound Estuary Association regularly has beach naturalists on hand at the beach to talk to visitors about beach life.
Friendly Grove is a great park with swings, a skate park and nice play structure. It also boasts a Born Learning Trail that surrounds the park. The trail provides outdoor learning games that build pre-literacy skills for school readiness (the other local park with this trail is Decatur Woods). The park has a neighborhood seating project by artist Susan Christian using life stages of trees as public art and park seating. The park has a little kid structure and various climbing structures.
LBA park was developed in 1974 and stands for the Little Baseball Association (the city’s then Little League) and has been expanded since. It includes a .7 mile loop running track, swings, and it is the only Olympia park with a zip line. It also features a monster dome rope play structure with areas to climb, swing, a rope bridge and it even accommodates really big kids (adults). It has a little kid structure as well.
Lions Park was started in 1946 by the Olympia Lions club and the neighborhood association. In 2010 the park was improved to include log climbers, horseshoe pits, a climbing rock structure and slide. The park includes the animal journey of indigenous animal tracks (including people) and the path is meant to be walked on allowing people to participate in the journey. Also at the park are 12 hidden lions and a sprinkler.
Yauger Park also features a trail around the park, through the storm water structure nature area, a disk golf course, horse shoe pits and swings. There is a Dirt Works demonstration garden at the park that features summer classes for kids. The park features a three story play structure called the mega tower including four slides, and the structure is handicapped accessible.
After visiting one of these parks, head over to the Port of Olympia’s Boatswap and Chowder Challenge on Saturday. Event information can be found here.
Get out and enjoy the sunshine this summer at any of these Olympia parks.
Thrifty Thurston highlights inexpensive family fun in Thurston County. The weekly series focuses on family-friendly activities throughout our community. If you have a suggestion for a post, send us a note at submit@thurstontalk.com. For more events and to learn what’s happening in Olympia and the surrounding area, click here.
