Location: North Puget Sound/Everett
Address: 802 E. Mukilteo Blvd., Everett
Acreage: 197
Everett’s oldest park is little known outside of this city, but it has enough interesting features to keep you busy for half a day. And, true to its name, second-growth forest makes up several sections of this lovely park.
If you’re a hiker, start on the trails, which begin near the playground, behind the picnic shelter. The kid-friendly quarter-mile loop is noted on a kiosk map and points out trees and shrubs that you may see on your walk. The dirt trail follows a ridge through a corridor of salal and ferns and circles back where side paths lead to more trails to the west. Cross the gully and wander along until you emerge on the edge of a large open field where the trail continues along the north side and brings you to another parking area just west of the playground.
Speaking of that playground, it’s large and fun year-round (although in the summer there’s the bonus of a spray park). Kids also enjoy the animal farm that’s open in the summer months only. It’s the second-generation animal attraction after a zoo (housing monkeys, lions, bears, and elephants, among other animals) that operated here for sixty years closed in the 1970s.
Other off-season activities include horseshoe pits, a street hockey court, tennis courts, a basketball court… and a good winter option is the indoor swimming pool that’s located near the main parking lot.
#492 (Visited 1/25/2016)