Last Updated on August 14, 2024
Passing over the Sky Garden Bridge with views of lush greenery below and Tulsa’s downtown skyline in the distance, it’s as if I’m entering another world. Inside the Gathering Place, voted USA Today’s Best City Park of 2024, it’s easy to forget that the city exists at all.
Located on 100 acres of waterfront along the Arkansas River, the Gathering Place offers a chance for everyone to connect with nature and develop a nuanced view of Oklahoma’s landscapes. Each of Oklahoma’s twelve different ecoregions is represented inside the park, so visitors can experience forests, wetlands, prairies, and more. All for free.
The park has 21 entry points, leading to nature trails and playgrounds. The Gathering Place brings together the best of outdoor family fun combined with horticulture highlighting the beauty of Oklahoma’s natural plants.
Sky Garden: Best Views of the River
Standing on the hilltop admiring the gingko trees shrubs against the skyline, it’s easy to miss the traffic whizzing by beneath me in tunnels. The land bridge follows a European design that allows both pedestrians and animals to safely cross the road.
The view is captivating—a perfect entry into the park.
Since the Sky Garden is designed as a pollinator’s paradise, you’ll want to keep an eye out for butterflies. I spotted several on a recent visit. The park’s commitment to preserving native species is evident in the designated Monarch Waystation, which provides everything monarchs need for each life stage.
Four Seasons Garden: Best Place to Escape the Crowds
The jutting rock formations, built out of local sandstone, feel prehistoric. With almost 1,000 feet of linear rock, the Four Seasons Garden feels set apart from the rest of the park. It’s a quieter, more contemplative spot. The colors in the stone contrast with the brighter flowering plants; yews and wispy grasses add texture.
In 2023, Gathering Place staff redesigned the garden and planted on the rock columns, adding more vegetation to the area.
“We viewed (the columns) as large planters in the sky when we were planting them,” Andrea Leitch, vice president of marketing and engagement at Gathering Place, told me. “They are full of thrillers, fillers, and spillers.”
The mix of plants changes with the seasons, but pines, junipers, and other evergreen shrubs and trees provide a green, textured backdrop for the seasonal plants. This fall, visitors can expect pops of color from sumacs, crape myrtles, and smoke trees. In the meadows surrounding the garden, fall wildflowers such as goldenrods, asters, and white snakeroot will bring out the beauty of the season.
This garden is a hidden treasure, where you can often go through the entire site without seeing anyone else. It’s the perfect place when you’re feeling a little contemplative.
The ONEOK Boathouse: Best Outdoor Recreation
At the southern end of Peggy’s Pond, the boathouse has staff available during certain hours to check out kayaks and paddle boats to visitors. Slipping into a kayak provides a new view of the park as you glide along, watching for turtles, rabbits, and the ever-present koi fish.
With three acres of pond holding six million gallons of water, there are plenty of places to explore. The best part: like almost everything in the Gathering Place, it’s free.
Chapman Adventure Playground: Best Place for Kids
The five-acre Chapman Adventure Playground feels like playing inside a work of art. As I approach, the tower of a castle draws me in. It’s part of the spiral connector, a series of seven towers connected by suspension bridges. It’s perfect for those who love to climb.
Inside, each area of the whimsical playground is designed for different ages, but the structures can support adults as well. Everywhere, kids can climb, slide or crawl through these formations. In addition to being visually gorgeous, my niece and nephew can attest that the attractions are a ton of fun.
“Every step of the way, we are thinking about children’s developmental needs and how they can learn through play at the park,” Leitch said.
To me, the most gorgeous part of the Adventure Playground is The Land of the River Giants, created by Monstrum, a Danish company with a background in stage design. Monstrum’s play structures resemble the paddlefish and the blue heron, both native species to Oklahoma. My favorite, the iconic large blue herons, are both exquisite and playful and even contain a giant slide for kids.
Another favorite spot of mine is the Bramble Sensory Garden, featuring a maze of mirrors. Imagination comes to life in Fairytale Forest, where tiny storybook-inspired houses sit in a giant sandbox, and Volcanoville, a padded area with climbing structures perfect for toddlers. Don’t miss the nearby Swing Hill and Slide Vale—both ideal for visitors with kids.
The Williams Lodge: Best Place to Cool off Mid-Day
I always like to stop by the Williams Lodge for a temperature-controlled view looking out over the park. The Redbud Cafe on the first floor offers coffee and ice cream, but I always head upstairs, where I’ve met friends and worked on projects utilizing the free Wi-Fi.
The second-story solarium is built around a giant two-story fireplace. The room is bathed in earth tones with a stone floor and ceiling that’s a work of art in itself, featuring four types of wood: Wormy Maple, Western Red Cedar, Aromatic Cedar, and Knotty Cedar.
The furniture continues the trend, with plush cream couches, stuffed leather chairs and wooden tables providing a variety of seating options. The floor-to-ceiling windows look out over the park, creating the perfect temperature-controlled environment to people watch or see the colorful Koi swimming below.
Peggy’s Pond: Best Place to Relax in the Evening
The docks and seating at the northern end of Peggy’s Pond offer a serene spot to unwind. The Koi fish are a particular highlight, eagerly gathering at the dock’s edge whenever anyone approaches, hoping for a treat. For just a quarter, visitors can feed the Koi from spring through fall, with feeders typically removed between late October and early November depending on the weather to support the fish’s hibernation. The water’s clarity provided me with a perfect view of the Koi as they danced around a turtle.
The clear water is due to the Wetland Garden north of Peggy’s Pond. This Garden serves as a natural filtration system, effectively removing pollutants from the water. Through a network of pipes, water is pumped from Peggy’s Pond to the head pools at the garden’s entrance. From there, the water cascades through the garden, where plants and soil work together to naturally purify it before returning to the pond.
During my most recent visit at Peggy’s Pond, a family relaxes on the docks, chatting comfortably in cushioned Adirondack chairs. This tranquil spot is ideal for packing a snack and a drink and settling into the cozy deck chairs to watch the sunset over the pond. This is serenity.
