Yauger Park

Many hours have been spent at this park watching softball and soccer and skating! It’s really nice as long as it hasn’t been raining! Once the rain hits it become basically a lake! Summertime is nice here.

There’s some construction beside the park but it’s not noticeable. The parking is great and the playground is awesome. Even though it’s «suggested» that only 5 – 12 year olds play on the jungle gym, it’s big enough to fit this 23 year old and I highly recommend it!

I’ve always thought the main parking lot of this park was under the water since it has that pond next to the parking lot. I was like, why would someone build the parking lot at such and angle where it fills up with water all the time? Then I saw foliage and such growing out of the pond area which I still thought was the parking lot and I was like, «Wow, that’s mega-​triflin’, yeah… so um… somebody might wanna get that». Then after closer inspection I saw it was a pond/​marshy/​walking trail thing. Way to go genius!
Anyway, this park has quite a bit of space to do various activities. There is a community garden, nature trails, horseshoe pavilion, a playground with newer looking and safe looking equipment whereas your children may not get tetanus playing on it, playing fields for baseball & soccer. You really can get a workout here. There also is a food kitchen that appears to be were they service hot dogs and such when there are baseball games.
What kind of sucks is that parking lot that I mentioned earlier is always closed it seems when I come. There is another parking lot behind an apartment complex next to the community garden so don’t worry if that other lot is closed. There also seemed to be a lot of construction behind the park, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. I will say that this park seems decently safe, but maybe not at night and maybe not in the bathroom when the main doors are closed. The bathrooms kind of look like a haven for the homeless so be careful. And who knew Olympia had a Horseshoe club? I was like what the what? Anyway, cool park.

A great place to take the kids for some running around time (though not a park you would describe as an essential part of your Olympia experience). The play structure is large and well-​maintained, and suitable for older kids (our 8-​year-​old loved it) as well as young ones (who have their own play structure).
The surrounding park has lots to explore — we’ll look forward to it next time we are in town!