A visit to Riverside Park in Grants Pass.
After having lunch on the patio at the Taprock Grill, on the other side of the Rogue River, we came across to Riverside Park, which is "the Big Kahuna" of the Grants Pass parks.
This is just part of the fleet of jetboats that are constantly taking passengers down the Wild and Scenic Rogue River, and returning to the Taprock Grill.
Riverside Park hosts a myriad of activities throughout the year. In addition to the many walking and bike paths, the park has a
massive playground,
rose gardens, a soccer field, softball field and disc golf-course meanders through sections of the park.
Ducks, geese and pigeons fill the park, and for the most part, disregard the people who walk and boat among them.
Riverside Park is the venue of the Boatnik Festival, which is held every Memorial Weekend in Grants Pass.
In the summertime there are weekly concerts in the Park. Jetboats, kayaks, rafts, and every kind of boat you can imagine will be seen going up and down the river.
Riverside Park hosts picnic tables with electricity, barbecue pits, horseshoe pits, and portable volleyball standards, which can all be reserved.
Next time you visit Riverside Park stop and take a look at the memorial to Glen Wooldridge. He was the first person to run a drift boat from Grants Pass to the Pacific Ocean, and that was in 1915!
Riverside Park has always been a favorite gathering place since pioneer days, and is the jumping off point to head for Northern Oregon, California, and the coast.
A short 90 minutes from here, takes you to the Oregon Caves National Monument, another half-hour you can be in Crescent City, California on the coast, or turn north to Brookings, Gold Beach, or the professional, widely known golf courses, such as Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Oregon.
