Dog Parks of the Metro with Charlie the Corgi, Part 4

May 27, 2014 by Sunset Vet Clinic

Meet Charlie. Charlie is a 2-year-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Charlie loves: stealing socks, playing tug-of-war, drinking out of the bathtub faucet, and barking at dogs that are bigger than him (which is almost every dog). Charlie hates: German Shepherds (I don’t get it), not getting all the attention, being picked up out of the bathtub, and cleaning up after himself (so lazy).

Over the course of three days, my best friend and I traveled to four of the metro-area’s finest dog parks. Charlie is a high-energy pup that loves chasing other dogs in wide-open spaces. Dog parks (and the rides in the car to-and-from the dog parks) are the best things in the world to him, so he had a great time.

If you missed “Part 1,” “Part 2,” or last week’s “Part 3,” go ahead and check those out! Charlie and I have analyzed two Norman, OK dog parks so far: a small dog park at David Stanley Chevrolet and a much larger dog park near Griffin Park. We also had a good time at Paw Park in Oklahoma City. We’ll eventually make it to all the dog parks in the metro, but this week we ventured to Edmond to check out the highly-rated “Edmond Dog Park.” Just when we thought the Paw Park in OKC was the biggest dog park we’d ever go to…Here are the pros and cons of this neighborhood dog-hangout:

“Edmond Dog Park” – Edmond, OK

This is what greets you upon arrival. I’m still not entirely sure whether “Miki’s Trail” is the official name of the dog park, or whether it’s just the 380 ft. walk leading up to the dog park. Regardless, the walk-up is absolutely amazing:

At first, you can’t even tell that there’s a dog park on the other side. It kind of just looks like you’re walking into the woods. As you can see from the pictures, the outside of this wooded-area is filled with ever-changing leaves (mostly yellow on the day we went), but once you step inside, everything turns into a bright, healthy green. This area is shaded well and serves as a nice “cool-off” resting spot if need be. In order to get to the dog park, you have to cross a tiny bridge, which is about five feet above a babbling brook. Don’t worry, there are no bridge keepers waiting to ask you questions like, “What is your favorite color?”

When you finally get into the dog park, you get the choice of going into the small or big dog area. The small dog area is decent-sized, but it was mostly vacant on the day that we went. That’s likely because the big dog side is enormous – even when it’s filled with dogs and people, it still looks empty. Here is what you see when you get in:

It looks like it goes on for miles, right? Not only is is long, but it is insanely wide. It has grass for the dogs to frolic on, which was an immediate upgrade over the OKC Paw Park, and hills to run up and down. It also has a pretty solid shaded area over by the hilly parts, so your dogs can take a breather at any time. Charlie spent a lot of time just laying down in the shaded area. It’s a nice alternative to chasing other dogs’ tails in the muggy heat, I suppose. Here are a few more pictures of the large dog area to give you a bit of perspective on just how big it is:

That last picture is of Charlie running on the trail made at the end(ish) of the dog park. Where does this trail lead, you ask?

Yes, that’s lake access. This is a great spot for confident swimmers to take a dip and cool-off. I also love that it’s placed at the back of the park (much like Paw Park in OKC), because it gives the dogs a little bit of time to naturally dry off (and play some more) on their trek back to the cars. This was definitely our best trip to a metro-area dog park, and we will be back in the future. Charlie loved running around and using all the open space, but, most importantly, he made some friends along the way.

PROS:

There are separate areas for large and small dogs.

It’s such a nice space with numerous trees, nice green grass and shaded hills for your dogs to run up and down.

If the dog park isn’t your thing, there’s a nice trail you can walk just outside of the fence.

There’s a separate area for dogs to get into the water. It’s not as nice or closed-off as the area at “Paw Park” in Oklahoma City, but it’s still nice to have.

CONS: