Make Plans to Come Play in Fresh Air and Sunshine

Many families with children visit the Yakima Valley to enjoy the sunshine, pick farm fresh fruit in the orchards or vegetables for canning or pickling. What could be better than to take a bite of a ripe peach just picked from the tree. Delicious!

Experience the fun educational activities offered at Barretts Orchard. Learn about the growing of cherries through an interpretive walk through the cherry orchards and enjoy the cherry picking festival during the harvest. Pick apples and sample cider in the fall.

Visit Bella Terra Gardens to pick the fresh organic strawberries, black berries, raspberries and blueberries in season. Your children will enjoy the farm animals, goats, babydoll sheep and chickens.

Learn about making cheese at the Darigold Dairy Fair and, better yet, sample the Darigold ice cream.

Visit the Selah Ridge Lavender Farm in July harvest days to gather fresh cut lavender surrounded by their soothing aroma. Photos

These are just a few of the child friendly activities to enjoy. Come play in the fresh air and sunshine and experience Yakima Valley farm fresh fun. Stop at the Yakima Valley Visitor Information Center for a children's gift packet including color pages like the one below.

Yakima Valley Labyrinths

Looking for unusual spaces in the Yakima Valley, spaces and places not on tour maps, well known by locals and those who actively search for the unusual? Labyrinths have existed around the world for thousands of years, used for meditation, spiritual enlightenment, and healing with each turn in the path representing the journeys of life. Walking a labyrinth is said to suspend the left brain activity of logical thought and encourage the right brain activities intuition, creativity, and meditation. Each time one walks the circular turning pathway can be a different experience from a general sense of inner peace or calm, to insights, answers to questions or simply a nice walk.

Labyrinths exist in several places in the Yakima Valley. In front of the the Allied Arts Center at Gilbert Park is the labyrinth, located at 5000 West Lincoln Ave. This is a 45 foot diameter pathway in brick, with a large rock in the center, built in 2001, consisting of 7 adjacent semi-circles. This Classic 7 pattern dates back 3500 years to the Isle of Crete.

If you are visiting with children, the Yakima Greenway labyrinth, built in 2001, at McGuire Playground in Sunrise Rotary Parks. The playground features a large wooden play structure, one can reach by parking at Sarge Hubbard Park and walking north about one mile.

There are two other labyrinths located in the Yakima Valley at Children's Village, 3801 Kern Road, Yakima, and Heritage University, 3240 Fort Road, Toppenish.

Come, walk to the center of a Yakima Valley labyrinth, for a profound experience or a pleasant walk on a sunny day.