Summer is in full swing and now is the time to take advantage of outdoor activities! Ten Trails is conveniently located close to outdoor recreation sites and the community has many outdoor amenities as well as activities planned for the summer months.

Attend One of Ten Trails’ Summer Outdoor Movie Nights

Ten Trails is hosting movie nights in our Civic Park throughout the months of July, August, and September. We will have food trucks parked at our Civic Park from 5 to 8pm on movie nights for a quick and convenient dinner, and the movie will start to play around dusk. Bring your own blankets and low-back chairs to enjoy the show!

See Live Music Outdoors

The Puget Sound area has many outdoor live music venues including summer outdoor concert series in the cities of Kent, Auburn, and Bellevue. Head to nearby Woodinville to Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery for their ticketed summer concert series events featuring nationally-touring performers. In addition, Ten Trails has live music scheduled throughout the summer during our Sunset Markets and at our Hometown HoeDown event September 17^th. 2022 – Follow us on Facebook for updates on all summer events!

Dine Outdoors

Get out of the hot kitchen and enjoy your meals outdoors this summer. Whether dining alfresco at a local restaurant, having a picnic at nearby Lake Sawyer or our Civic Park, or grabbing takeout from one of our food trucks that visit the community, eating outdoors is a simple summer pleasure that should not be missed!

Use our Community Sports Courts 

Ten Trails has many outdoor community amenities that are best enjoyed while the sun is shining! Check out our bocce ball courts, basketball court and outdoor ping pong tables this summer. www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043      

Hit the Trails on Horseback this Summer at Local Horseback Riding Venues

Ten Trails enjoys a prime location, close to area outdoor attractions but also within convenient commuting distance to area employment centers. Ten Trails is also located within close distance to many horse farms that offer seasonal trail riding and year-round riding lessons. Check out these local farms this summer for a trail ride with the entire family!

Misty Acres

Located in nearby Ravensdale, Misty Acres has horses that are suitable for trail riding for beginner or first-time riders. Trail rides are an hour long, and must be arranged ahead of time. Misty Acres also offers lessons for riders as well as on-site pony parties.

Morris’s Shadow Mountain

Located in Auburn, Morris’s Shadow Mountain is just a quick drive from Ten Trails. The farm offers boarding, riding lessons and trail rides through the wooded areas adjacent to the property. Morris’s Shadow also has a covered riding arena for year-round riding.

Echo River Ranch

Echo River Ranch offers walking trail rides through private timberlands and the foothills surrounding the ranch. The property itself is five acres with miles of beautiful trails to explore on horseback. Echo River Ranch offers trail riding for visitors all year long, rain or shine, with a selection of steady horses suitable for beginner riders.

Pony Tail Ranch

Pony Tail Ranch in nearby Renton is a full-service equestrian facility offering an indoor, enclosed arena for lessons as well as access to Lake Youngs’ trails for trail riding. Contact the ranch to learn about their options for hosting birthday parties.

Deerfield Farm

Deerfield Farm in Issaquah is well-known for their world-class, competitive riding program. The farm, located in the beautiful Cascade foothills, offers horse camps for the summer months and during the school year. Riding lessons are available for kids as well as adults, and the farm has options for renting space and horses for corporate or other events. www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043    

Ten Trails will be taking part in the Black Diamond Miner’s Day celebrations! Head to downtown, historic Black Diamond beginning at 9am on July 17 for live music, a vintage fashion show, donut-eating contest, chalk art contest, and more! After the Miner’s Day fun wraps up in downtown Black Diamond, swing on over to Ten Trails to continue the party with food trucks, games, and a movie in our Civic Park. Bring your picnic blankets and settle in for an evening of fun with a showing of Raya and the Last Dragon. The movie will begin approximately at dusk.

Head to Local Pick-Your-Own Blueberry Farms this Summer

A visit to a local u-pick blueberry farm is a great summertime activity for the entire family! Get outside, learn about plants and farming while bringing home nutritious berries for the whole family to enjoy. There are many farms within easy driving distance to Ten Trails that offer pick-your-own options throughout the summer. Here are a few to consider visiting:

Canter-Berry Farms

Canter-Berry Farms is a small, family-owned farm that has been in operation with one family since 1954. The farm once sold blueberries at Pike Place Market where they were famous with customers for their quality. These days, the family only grows blueberries for the u-pick season. Located just southeast of Auburn in the upper Green River Valley, Canter-Berry Farms is just around the corner from Ten Trails. For updates on when blueberries will be available for picking for the 2021 season, visit the farm’s Facebook page.

Blue Dot Farm

Located a few miles north of Enumclaw on SE 416^th Street, Blue Dot Farm has over 500 plants with sixteen varieties of blueberries that ripen throughout the summer months. Some of these varieties produce the largest blueberries available in the country. For details on planning a visit to the farm this season, check out their website.

The Rusty Plow

The Rusty Plow Farm also offers u-pick blueberries with five main varieties at the farm, each with its own unique flavor and qualities. The Rusty Plow Farm is family-friendly, and great place to bring kids for an afternoon of blueberry-picking. Located in nearby Enumclaw, the farm is just a short drive from Ten Trails. www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043  

Create Your Summer Bucket List

Summertime means more free time for kids and plenty of sunshine and warm weather to do things that cannot be done the rest of the year. Stop summer boredom before it happens by having a family “Summer Bucket List” handy for kids to select activities from. There are a ton of websites with ideas to get you started on your family’s own summer activity list. Click here for a great PDF with a ton of fun ideas. Make sure to tailor your list to your family’s taste and what is available in the Puget Sound area. Some suggestions for fun, kid-friendly activities to add to your list:

• Hike to a waterfall
• Play a musical instrument in front of others
• Plant an herb garden and use it for cooking
• Attend an outdoor concert
• Play flashlight tag

Keep it Attainable 

Keep your family’s summer bucket list attainable by setting realistic parameters for distance, cost, and availability of the activities. While flying to Australia to pet a kangaroo may not be a reasonable summer 2021 goal for your family, perhaps you could plan a visit to a nearby zoo to see kangaroos in person.

Put the List Up for All to See

Keep summer activities and priorities top of mind by posting the list for all to see in a prominent place in the home. Use brightly colored paper, markers, glitter, or paint…whatever kids want to do to make the list-making a fun activity. Alternatively, ditch the paper altogether and write the bucket list activities on rocks or clothespins. As you complete an activity, move the list item from one container to the next. At the end of the summer, you will have fun looking through all the items in your “completed” container.

Make it Social

Build accountability and inspire others by sharing your summer bucket list activities on social media with friends, family, and neighbors. At the beginning of the summer, post your list and make sure to include a photo of each summer activity as you complete it. Create a hashtag unique to your family so you can search out photos later or compile them into a summer activity video log. We would love to see your summer bucket lists! Share your lists with us on social media, @TenTrails, and tag us when posting your summer activity photos. www.TenTrails.com 360.369.4043

PopUp StoryWalk at Ten Trails

Ten Trails is happy to share that PopUp StoryWalk has an installation in the community June 3rd-20th! Come walk our trails and read The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield. PopUp StoryWalk is a local program promoting literacy, health, and art appreciation using deconstructed children’s storybooks installed in outdoor community spaces. Begin a children’s story at the start of a trail, read posted pages along the way, and end the trial as you end the book. PopUp StoryWalk is empowered by the Arts of Kenmore.      

   

Visit the Community June 3rd-20th

The PopUp StoryWalk installation is in the community June 3rd-20th, located at the intersection of SE Stevens and Glacier Ave. Grab a map from our Welcome Center for easy navigation or follow the QR code directions on our website’s home page.

   

Hidden Treasures Along the Trails

While children read along the trail, we will have some hidden treasures that correlate with the book’s theme for them to spot along the way.  PopUp StoryWalk will be at Ten Trails for three weeks so there is plenty of time for families to visit the trail more than once and see how many fun new things they discover on each visit.   www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043  

Springtime Outings for Animal Educational Experiences

Springtime is a great time of year for people of all ages to connect with animals. There are many local farms in the area around Ten Trails that offer petting farm interactive experiences with domestic animals. For an informative experience seeing wildlife, head to nearby Northwest Trek to see their bears, wolves, big cats, and more. Spring is also a great time of year for a wildlife hike to look for migrating birds.

Fox Hollow Farm

Fox Hollow Farm, located in nearby Issaquah, is now open for visitors for its children’s car track, greenhouse, gardens, trails, river park and animal areas. Guests to the farm are being limited due to Covid-19 restrictions. Check their website for available times and book your visit in advance. Ticket prices are $5 per adult and $8 per child, per session.

Sammamish Animal Sanctuary

Sammamish Animal Sanctuary is a nonprofit organization where formerly homeless, neglected or animals that need a forever home are cared for as they live out the rest of their lives. The farm is accepting visitors this spring in limited numbers due to Covid-19 precautions and requests visitors schedule a tour through their website before visiting. Visits to the farm are free, however donations are appreciated to help pay for the food and care the animals receive.

Go on a Birding Hike

An inexpensive pair of binoculars or a keen eye are all you need to go on a birding adventure with kids this spring. As birds migrate into western Washington for the season, see how many different species you can identify on your hike. For a list of some of the best places for birdwatching in our state, check out the Audubon Society’s website.

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park

Dedicated to conservation and education, Northwest Trek has been a popular attraction for local residents and tourists for decades.  The park is now offering visits to a limited number of guests at a time for all outdoor attractions. Visit this spring to get up close and personal with the park’s many residents like gray wolves, black bears, and grizzly bears. www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043

Visit Local Botanical Gardens this Spring

The Seattle area is home to many beautiful botanical gardens, which are gardens dedicated to the collection, cultivation, preservation and display of a wide range of plants. Botanical gardens are known as such because each plant is labeled with its botanical name. A visit to one of our many local botanical gardens is a great springtime activity for families that is both fun and educational.

Bellevue Botanical Garden 

Located at 12001 Main Street in Bellevue, the Bellevue Botanical Garden is open daily, dawn to dusk, and there is no admission fee. The City of Bellevue owns and manages the garden, which was opened in 1992 and designed to be a space to be enjoyed by the community. The garden encompasses 53 acres of cultivated gardens, restored woodlands, and natural wetlands and showcases plants that thrive in the Pacific Northwest. Bellevue Botanical Garden is also offering virtual gardening classes during the pandemic. Visit their website for more information.

Soos Creek Botanical Garden and Heritage Center

The Soos Creek Botanical Garden and Heritage Center is open to the public seasonally, March through November. The 22-acre garden is located on what was originally 200 acres owned by Norwegian immigrant ancestors of Maurice Skagen. The heritage center is devoted to highlighting the farming life of the early settlers on the Soos Creek plateau during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Opening day for the garden in 2021 is March 3, although the heritage center indoor display is closed until further notice during Covid-19 restrictions.

Washington Park Arboretum UW Botanic Gardens 

The Washington Park Arboretum is open to the public daily and admission is free. Take a self-guided tour through 230 acres of gardens, natural areas, and wetlands that includes species of plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the local area. The UW Botanic Gardens also includes a beautiful Japanese Garden which is managed by the City of Seattle and has a small entry fee. This 3.5-acre urban sanctuary features all the elements of a traditional Japanese garden with stones, water, lanterns, bridges, buildings, and plants.

Highline SeaTac Botanical Gardens 

Situated on approximately 11 acres adjacent to the North SeaTac Community Center, the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden is a one-of-a-kind heritage location created to preserve some of the area’s most treasured gardens. Two of the gardens were physically moved to their current location to prevent their demolition during SeaTac Airport’s third runway project. Admission to the garden is free and it is open daily from dawn to dusk. Leashed dogs are allowed at the garden which features displays of roses and a Japanese garden. www.TenTrails.com 360-469-4043

Fun Fall Activities for the Whole Family

This fall season is a great time to take the kids outdoors to explore something new! Why not plan an educational and fun outing to take part in one of these fall family-friendly activities soon?

Watch Salmon Runs

The rivers and creeks of the Seattle area come alive in the fall with the yearly salmon runs. Salmon spawn in local waterways, swim out to the Pacific Ocean where they live for a few years, then return to the river where they spawned to complete their life cycle. Salmon are an integral part of the ecosystem in our area, and their spectacular swim upriver is not to be missed. Ten Trails residents can view salmon runs in the nearby Cedar River in addition to many local creeks and streams. For a list of Seattle-area salmon run viewing spots, check out this website.

Search for Sand Dollars in the Tidal Flats at Dash Point

Head to nearby Dash Point in Federal Way during low tide and comb the beach for shells, kelp, and sand dollars. Dash Point State Park offers hiking trails, campgrounds, and unobstructed views of the Puget Sound. Kids will love splashing in the shallow tidal pools and building sandcastles in the 3,201 feet of shoreline.

Go Razor Clamming at Washington’s Beaches

Recreational razor clamming is one of the most popular licensed outdoor activities in Washington State, and razor clamming beaches on the Washington coast can be reached from Ten Trails in less than three hours. If you have not tried razor clamming, this fall season is the perfect time to give it a go! This family-friendly activity is enjoyed by children and senior citizens alike, totaling over 75,000 participants each year in Washington. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has just announced digs for this season. Check their website for dates and license information.

Take a Drive to the Cascades to See Fall Foliage

Pack your cameras and a picnic lunch and head out for a drive into the Cascades this fall to witness some truly spectacular fall foliage! Shades of red, gold, orange and yellow can be found in various locations throughout the Cascades with many varieties of deciduous trees putting on a beautiful show. Before heading out, plan your route and check this website for a map of active wildfire locations and road closures. www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043