Walk the old iron footpath past the covered bridge on any Saturday this month and you'll notice something that wasn't there in July: kids soaked to the bone under a splash pad, a dog off its leash chasing a tennis ball across fenced grass, and two courts of pickleball going at full volume. None of that existed at this address a year ago. Construction on the new park started in September 2025, and the 15-acre site officially opened this August, built around the same historic covered bridge that's crossed the Thornapple River for generations.
What's easy to miss, if you've lived in Ada for a while, is that this isn't just another patch of green space added to a township that already has plenty. It's the first park in the village to combine three specific things that Ada's existing parks never had at all: a splash pad, a dog park, and pickleball courts. If you wanted any of those before this summer, you were driving somewhere else to get them.
What Actually Opened This August
The new park sits along the Thornapple River, wrapped around the Ada Covered Bridge near Bronson Street, a landmark that's served as a scenic crossing point and trailhead for years. The build adds a large playground split into zones for younger and older kids, a splash pad, two pickleball courts, a fenced dog park, and a new pedestrian bridge connecting both sides of the site so people walking or biking don't have to cross traffic to get from one half to the other. A veterans memorial anchors a quieter corner of the grounds.
Cheri DeVos, honorary co-chair of the Connecting Community effort that helped fund the project, described the goal as building "a central outdoor space for fun, recreation and relaxation" that the whole township could use. The project took roughly eleven months from groundbreaking to ribbon-cutting, which is fast for a public park build of this size, and it lands the same year Ada Township residents approved a parks and recreation millage that will help fund maintenance and future projects like it.
The Gap Nobody Was Talking About
Ada already had parks before this one. It just didn't have this combination of amenities in any of them, and lining them up side by side makes the gap obvious.
| Park | What It Offers | Splash Pad | Dog Park | Pickleball |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ada Township Park | Walking trails, baseball diamonds, playground, pavilions | No | No | No |
| Roselle Park | 240-plus acre nature preserve, paved river trail, wetland observation deck, silo climbing wall | No | No | No |
| Legacy Park | Concert lawn, Van Andel Pavilion, summer music series | No | No | No |
| Covered Bridge Park | Playground, splash pad, dog park, two pickleball courts, pedestrian bridge | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Ada Township Park has been the workhorse for youth sports and family picnics for years, hosting AYSO soccer, the Forest Hills Ultimate Frisbee Club, and Paradigm Fitness classes on its basketball court. Roselle Park, built on the former site of the Ada Beef Company, leans into quiet nature walks and river overlooks rather than active recreation. Legacy Park is where the township gathers for Music on the Lawn and the Fourth of July concert. Each of those parks does one thing well. None of them gave residents a place to cool a toddler off on a ninety-degree afternoon, let a dog run without a leash, or play a set of pickleball without driving across town. Covered Bridge Park does all three, in one location, walking distance from downtown.
The Fall Calendar Still Lives At Ada Park, For Now
The township's marquee fall events haven't moved to the new site yet, and it's worth knowing the difference between Ada Park and Covered Bridge Park before you plan a weekend around either one. The third annual Community Campout runs Saturday, September 12 through Sunday, September 13 at Ada Park, with check-in opening at 3 p.m. and checkout by 10 a.m. the next morning. It's tent camping only, priced at $75 per campsite for up to six people, and this year's lineup adds a petting zoo, multiple inflatables, and a Touch-a-Truck display that weren't part of past years.
A few other dates worth putting on the calendar:
- September 17: The Lark Wine Bar of Ada hosts its monthly wine tasting, 7 p.m.
- October 3: The township's annual pickleball tournament returns, with sponsorship and entry details handled through Ada Township Parks and Recreation.
- October 17: Ada Township's Fall Clean-Up Day, the seasonal drop-off event for yard waste and bulk items.
- October 29: The Lark's cocktail tasting takes the wine bar's monthly series into fall, also at 7 p.m.
None of these are hosted at Covered Bridge Park this year. But the new courts and dog park sit close enough to Ada Park and downtown that they're becoming the default stop before or after whatever else is already on the calendar. If your dog needs a run before the campout, or your kid wants to burn off energy before the pickleball tournament crowds in for the day, the new park is a five-minute walk from either.
A Short Walk From The Table You Already Have Reservations At
Part of what makes the new park different from Roselle or Legacy is what surrounds it. Downtown Ada has developed into two distinct stretches over the past decade: the newer, modern business district built around wide sidewalks and second-floor office space, and the older historic core a short walk away, where a structure dating to 1854 and Godwin's Village Hardware, open since 1955, still anchor the block.
Restaurants within easy walking distance of the bridge include The Post Tavern, Nonna's The Trattoria, MudPenny for coffee and breakfast, Zeytin for Turkish and Mediterranean plates that have been on the same corner since 2006, and Luna of Ada, which builds its tacos and margaritas around local ingredients. Love's Ice Cream, the scratch-made creamery that first opened at the Grand Rapids Downtown Market back in 2013, opened its Ada location this past May on Bronson Street, close enough to the new park that a splash pad afternoon and a scoop afterward is now a genuinely short trip rather than a drive.
What This Actually Changes
The headline isn't that Ada got a new park. Townships add parks. The headline is narrower and more useful if you already live here: this is the first time splash pad, dog park, and pickleball access have existed inside village limits at all, in one place, instead of requiring a drive to a park in a neighboring community. For a dog owner who's been driving to a fenced field somewhere else, or a family that's been packing up for a splash pad twenty minutes away, that's not a cosmetic upgrade. It's one fewer errand standing between a Tuesday afternoon and something to do with the extra hour.
The bridge itself hasn't changed. It's the same covered crossing that's marked this stretch of the Thornapple for generations. What's different is everything now built up around it, and how much less of Ada's recreational life needs to happen somewhere else.
If you're weighing what a neighborhood like this actually offers day to day, not just on a listing sheet, Polaris Real Estate knows these streets well enough to walk you through it. Ask Us Anything.