We don’t get many full days together lately. The Paws of the Panhandle project has me scheduling sessions almost every day.
It’s OK with me because I’m busy working and, heck goshdarnit, I love my job.
Bella doesn’t get so thrilled when she sees me leaving the house without her, so on Wednesday, we bumped around Spokane to review the three big off-leash dog parks near me.
There are smaller dog parks, like the downtown one, built on a traffic island at the intersection of Riverside and Sprague. There’s also the Valley Mission Park, which has separated areas for smaller and big dogs.
We hit the big ones, the ones with lovely wooded areas and lots of room to run.
They are, in order of preference:
Off-leash dog parks near me
You know I’m a fan of on-leash hiking but sometimes I just gotta let Bella run free, her tongue and tail wagging.
She didn’t seem to care which dog park she was at. She was just happy to be out and about and with me.
(I think.)
That means, however, these reviews are riddled with human bias, rather than dog. I tried to talk to her about it. I really did. My interviewing skills fell flat with her.
1. South Hill Dog Park
I feel like Bella is happiest at this dog park near me. It’s mostly flat with lots of trees for shade on those hot summer days and the arrowhead balsamroot is in full bloom right now.
It’s a fairly quiet spot and the dog lovers of Spokane’s South Hill are pretty friendly. I know I’m not the only non-South Hiller to frequent this park, too, judging by the members of the very active Facebook group.
It gets pretty busy on the weekend and parking can be an adventure.
There are bigger plans in the future for this lovely spot. This dog park was a point of controversy a few years ago when it was set to be closed for construction of a new middle school. The Friends of the South Hill Dog Park gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition to protest.
A reconstructed park, according to my friends at The Spokesman-Review, will be slightly larger, encompass some of the existing park and stretch over the old landfill site nearby.
