Fall in Love With These Outdoor Activities in Puyallup, WA
The outdoor activities in Puyallup, WA, are always easy to see. Within the cozy confines of town, there are numerous well-manicured city parks and picturesque nature trails, as well as the swift-flowing Puyallup River.
But the outdoor activities in Puyallup extend from downtown to all around. Most notably, Mount Ranier provides a towering 14,410-foot-high scenic backdrop a mere 30 miles away, with numerous other recreational offerings available in between.
“Puyallup is a hub for outdoor recreation in this area,” says Cody Geddes, Puyallup Parks & Recreation director. “We have all these urban parks and trails where you can feel like you’re miles away from the city. Then we also have easy access to nature preserves and open spaces within a short drive.”
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Parks and Trails in Puyallup Invite Families
Let’s start with the parks. The City of Puyallup maintains a system of 17 official parks and recreation facilities, including two off-leash dog parks and a 10,000-square-foot skatepark.
“Our parks are great for family opportunities,” Geddes says. “Most of them have playgrounds, walking trails and playing fields for all the major youth sports. Even in our smaller neighborhood parks, we try to incorporate some sort of loop trail around them. We created a new program called ‘Walk Puyallup’ where we encourage people to get out and walk our trails and parks. That’s a focus for us.”
Pioneer Park in the heart of downtown is Puyallup’s primary spot for community gatherings, including concerts and a weekly Farmers Market. Attractions range from the physical (the Kiwanis Kids Spray Park) to the mental (tables with built-in chess boards).
For a more expansive outing, venture a few miles south of downtown to Wildwood Park, an 80-acre green space with 55 acres that are naturally forested. The park also is home to the Jim Martison Exercise Trail, a scenic 0.7-mile loop that is ideal for hiking and bird watching.
“Wildwood feels like a state park setting,” Geddes says. “It’s a dense forested park with a lot of trails and picnic shelters, and a stream that runs through it that kids like to play in.”
Among the favorite outdoor attractions in Puyallup for children is 59-acre Bradley Lake Park, which centers around a 12-acre fishing pond that the city keeps stocked with trout. The lake is the site of an annual Fishing Derby for children age 2-14. Bradley Lake Park also has an all-inclusive playground that Geddes says is one of the most popular in the parks system.
Taking Trails Through Town … and Beyond
Parks and trails in Puyallup often go hand-in-hand (or maybe, hand and foot). For example, about 5 miles south of downtown, the 40-acre South Hill Community Park offers several wide, paved trails that lead to other attractions. These include the Heritage Recreation Center, a sports complex with baseball, soccer and multipurpose fields.
South Hill also provides a connection to the Nathan Chapman Memorial Trail, which was named in honor of a Green Beret and Puyallup resident who was the first U.S. soldier killed in the war in Afghanistan. Chapman’s motto was “Stand Up and Do Something,” and the trail encourages people to accomplish that by getting outside and exercising along the 1.6-mile pathway.
Riverwalk Trail in Puyallup
Perhaps the most prominent trail in Puyallup is the Riverwalk Trail, which runs for approximately 5 miles mostly alongside the city’s namesake waterway. The trail has been extended several times since it opened in 1998, and Geddes says the latest construction phase will help form a regional trail system that connects with neighboring towns and leads into Mount Ranier National Park.
“The Riverwalk is a great trail by itself right now, but in the future, it’s going to really expand the opportunities for trail users as it connects to these other regional points,” Geddes says. “It’s setting up to make this area a huge regional trail access point.”
Another of the outdoor attractions in Puyallup is the combination of urban and rural that can be found on the Puyallup Loop Trail (also known as the Clarks Creek Park trail), a nearly 5-mile-long route that links six city parks along a forest-shaded pathway.
“It’s an immersive outdoor feeling that is still almost entirely within downtown,” Geddes says. “It crosses through the community garden and goes by some ponds and through the watershed. It’s a really great experience.”
Did You Know?
Puyallup serves as a base camp for Mount Rainier, with the Nisqually Entrance located about an hour’s drive away.
Outdoor Activities in Puyallup and Surrounding Areas
For a more rustic setting, nearby Orangegate Park is a vast 148-acre green space operated by Pierce County Parks. Trails in the park include dedicated natural-surface paths for horseback riding.
Of course, numerous other outdoor wonders can be experienced within a short drive (or long hike / bike ride) from Puyallup. The Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville (about 40 minutes south) is a premier wildlife destination that offers an electric tram ride through a 435-acre, free-roaming area to see bison, elk, moose and mountain goats. Meanwhile, the Morse Wildlife Preserve in Graham (about 30 minutes south) is a quieter, 90-acre preserve with boardwalks through wetlands and prairie that is a popular spot for birdwatching.
“Puyallup is centrally located to a ton of outdoor opportunities,” Geddes says. “This is just a great place to recreate the way you want to recreate.”