Wapato Hills Park — Attraction in Tacoma

The parking situation is absolutely absurd. The only places one can park there without parking in front of someone's residence require Zone A parking permits, and the only way you can get those permits is if you live in the neighborhood--even though everyone who lives there already parks in front of their residences. Apparently, according to people in the neighborhood, people don't get towed for parking in these spots unless they stay there overnight.

I get that they want to keep down the riff-raff, especially after hours, but that could be solved by having it be pay parking with pay stations, and/or disallow people to park there after dark.

Having said that, it's not a bad park, the trails have been expanded from what they were 15 years ago, there are a couple tiny bridges that go over the marshy areas.

It's called Wapato HILLS for a reason--it's on quite a bit of an incline, so be prepared to hike if you want to significantly explore the trails.

The reasons for the two star rating, besides the parking issue, are the homeless that have camps there throughout. Perhaps they're nice homeless people, who knows, but I'm weary of going on any of the smaller trails unless I had...

One of my favorite parks...its small, has the big toy w/swings & slide for kids; water sprinkler park but was off today; ball field for baseball or kickball; no grill area but u can bring & setup ur own; there are restrooms & there's a trail to walk as well as a sidewalked area around park to stroll if u want. Sits in middle of a neighborhood & is quiet. The downside is the residents in neighborhood petitioned for "permit parking" so u can't park in front of the park, u have to park on the side street which is a very steep hill & pkg can be very limited on wkends. Otherwise it's a great little park...oh bring ur own chairs & tables & maybe shade becuz it's...

The park is nice enough. It's tucked into a neighborhood and even though l am a life long resident of Tacoma l wasn't aware of the park. Looks like it has a spray park in summer. There are basket ball hoops, a few picnic tables,and walking paths of which we took one. It took us on a gravel path up into a natural area for about a mile and a half walk. Apparently there has been loiterers and some bad elements in and around the park so there is parking by permit only which you have to aquire through the park department prior...