If you haven’t driven on Tule Lake Road in Parkland recently, you might not be aware there is quite a bit of construction happening at the Parkland Prairie. The small park across from the Parkland Light & Water office is loaded with construction equipment, Pierce County is building a foot bridge across Clover Creek for the new Parkland Trail.

The Parkland Community Trail will run from Sprinker Recreation Center to Pacific Lutheran University. It runs along 8th Avenue South and actually, the trail is not far from where the Indian Henry Trail ran from Tacoma. There are a couple monuments at 84th and Thompson marking that early indigenous trail that ran all the way to Harts Lake, then on to the mountain.

This newer trail will eventually expand. A ribbon cutting took place last Fall near the Breseman Forest at the North corner of Sprinker Recreation Center on Yakima Avenue. Once the footbridge is finished, more of the sidewalks and right of way will be paved and marked.