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Sehome Hill Arboretum
The heart of Bellingham is a big green cupcake. Smack up against Western Washington University is a quiet 180-acre hill that offers peaceful walks inside a deep green canopy and a glorious view at the top. We are lucky that our forebears chose to protect this beautiful spot from further development. Today, this verdant hillside offers an opportunity for learning, exploring, and basic rock climbing.
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Summer Fun at Bloedel Donovan Park
Bloedel Donovan Park has the most amazing array of things to do in an amazingly small space. Just 12 acres, the park offers a playground, multi-purpose fields, picnic tables and barbecue pits, sand volleyball courts, and best of all: a beach for swimming, as well as the city's only public boat launch and recreational access to Lake Whatcom. For those reasons alone, this is the quintessential summer park.
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Visiting the Peaceful Big Rock Garden
Big Rock Garden is a rare gem in a city with many extraordinary parks. With a bird sanctuary, a seasonal garden, and an outdoor art gallery, it provides a respite in our busy lives. Here is a great place to combine a peaceful family walk with— shhhh!— education. The kids can run and play freely, or you can search for and discuss the many species of plant while studying the unique sculptures in this small park.
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Boulevard Park
If you only looked at a map of Boulevard Park, you would be hard pressed to believe this little strip of 14 acres at the edge of Bellingham Bay had much going for it. But you’d be wrong. Boulevard Park is one of the busiest in Bellingham and for lots of great reasons. It has plenty of room for Frisbee, picnics and concerts on the grass, connections to trails that can take you to Fairhaven or downtown Bellingham and a Woods Coffee to provide tasty treats for park goers of all ages.
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A Walk Through Fairhaven Park
Fairhaven Park definitely packs a wallop of fun for families. Some of the features of this park include: Padden Creek running along the edge of the park, basketball and tennis courts, picnic tables and barbeque grills, picnic tables and an enclosed shelter, a playground, open fields, and connections to trails that take you anywhere you want to go. This urban park was established in 1906 and designed by John Olmstead, the son of Frederick Law Olmstead, who designed the famous Central Park in New York City.
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Cornwall Park
Cornwall Park is, quite literally, a cool place to visit year round. With so many big evergreens casting shade in much of the park, the weather’s always cool within park boundaries. But it is truly a great place to go—Cornwall is a peaceful, family park with play lots, a splash pool, the requisite trails through the woods, picnic areas and shelters, tennis and basketball courts, playing fields, and something unique in Bellingham: a disc golf course.
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Arroyo Park
Arroyo Park is mostly known as the steep trails you run/hike/bike through to get to the flat side! But it’s a gem of a park, a destination all its own, tucked between Samish Drive, California Street, and Chuckanut Drive.
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Lake Padden Park
Nestled in the Chuckanut foothills, Lake Padden Park is one of the most diverse municipal parks in the Pacific Northwest. Swimming, fishing, biking, hiking, playgrounds, tennis, golf, kayaking-- Padden has something for everyone!
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Whatcom Falls Park
Whatcom Falls Park is no ordinary city park. You’ll find fishing holes, a duck pond, and of course, the falls for which the park named. It’s beautiful and accessible year round. Not only is the park a great place for kids to have fun, but there are lots of educational opportunities too, from learning about fish at the fish hatchery to spotting all kinds of wildlife.