Tigard - Cook Park and Pumpkin Scavenger Hunt

 Technically you still have today to do this!

Scattered around Cook Park in Tigard are five posters with pumpkins as part of a family scavenger hunt.

https://www.tigard-or.gov/recreation/index.php

 

We were not interested in the prizes, which I am pretty sure were long gone before we got there, but it seemed like a good way to explore the park, which is huge.

The 36 acre property was first dedicated in 1964 as Tigard Park, but renamed in the '70s in honor of John Cook who had played a key role in getting the land turned into a park in the first place.

We only found two of the five pumpkins. The size of the park means that there is a lot of ground to cover, and we were unfamiliar with it. Someone who knows the park could probably find all five very quickly, as the child-friendly scavenger hunt clues are not hard.

We probably could still have found all of them by spending more time, but there was a bitterly cold and icy East wind blowing on us. Do not let the bright sunlight of these pictures fool you.

Still, we enjoyed what we did see, and hope to go back and explore more under more favorable conditions.

Currently the playground equipment can be used, but masks and social distancing are required.

In the ground we covered we saw several play areas and picnic areas, so there is room to spread out.

There were signs all over with suggested enrichment activities for children. They were also available in other languages. While I am sure the primary purpose of that is to make the park more welcoming, it can also help with early second language instruction for children (or late second language instruction for adults, either way).

We did not make it to the boat landing (that would have been so much colder), but we know in the summer it is a popular spot for paddle boarding.

We will be back.

 https://www.tigard-or.gov/community/cook_park.php