Submitted by KM Hills.
What a sunny and great weekend we just enjoyed. As I have written before, my four legged friend loves to get out and explore and this weekend was no exception, she enjoyed/explored three South Sound Parks.
The first was the Meridian Habitat Park in Puyallup, located at 144th and Meridian. The highlight of this 36 acre park was the off least dog park. It is good sized and is more than a fenced patch of land like the dog park at Chambers Bay. It has mature trees that offer shade and the elongated layout offers plenty of space to run. The park also has both a nice play place and grassy areas for kids. The one thing the park could use, for those who like walking, is a trail around the entire perimeter of the park, similar to the short trail around the little pond, near the entrance.
The second park we visited was South Hill Community Park, located at 144th and 86th Ave E. This park had a playground for the kids and a large grassy area but the best feature of this park was the Nathan Chapman paved walking trail. The trail has several loops through trees and wetlands area. One of the spurs, an out and back trail, will take you all the way to Heritage Recreation Center where there are multiple baseball and soccer fields.
The last park was Kobayashi Park in University Place, off Bridgeport and Chambers Creek Road. This park offered the relaxing sounds of Chamber Creek but little else. We checked this park out as we had recently seen videos produced by both the Cities of U.P. and Lakewood about a new bridge and trail. The unfortunate fact, while there is a new bridge, the trail does little else than connect a neighborhood in U.P. to one in Oakbrook. We truly hoped it was going to be a connection to the Chamber Creek Canyon Trail, which connects Lakewood to Steilacoom, but from the info on the website that looks to be a long way off.
Regardless of your preference there is nature to be enjoyed close to town and it is good for the soul.
