I’ve been passing the Leita Thompson Memorial Park for years (I’m sure some of you have too), and I never considered stopping until recently thanks to a recommendation from another Pokemon Go player.  The park is a bit deceptive.  You can see the Arts Center from the road as well as the Memorial Garden, but neither one of these actually makes it seem like there’s a really nice walking trail behind it.

As it turns out, it’s absolutely worth stopping, and if you ever happen to be traveling down Woodstock rd with a few minutes to kill, then I encourage you to pull over.

For you Pokemon Go players, there are three Pokestops and a gym in the memorial gardens.  The gardens are small, but pretty with benches everywhere making it a fantastic place to just sit and chill.  My only warning is to bring bug spray–I am not a fan of the mosquitos, and these guys bit me through my shoes last week.

I like to sit over near the lady with the urn–she’s technically a fountain–again, though, mosquitos.  You can normally hit the gym from where where she is, and I (weirdly) like the sound of the little fountain.

These are all the Pokestops (I’m standing in the memorial garden):

Everything you see in the screenshot, you’ll hit in the trail ahead.  You can’t really see the ones in the memorial garden (thank you gym…).  The one next to the road is the start of the trail that I normally head to.  There’s a longer path that starts on the other side, but I have yet to go that far.  For a path through the woods, that’s the most Pokestops I’ve seen so far (I’m sure there’s a spot with more somewhere, but it probably isn’t half as convenient).

I normally go down the yellow and loop back around.  I can get down to all of the Pokestops and back in 20 minutes-ish, making it ideal for killing time between students.  One of these days I’m going to do the whole thing.  There’s a pond that I have yet to see.

Even when it’s hot, the woods are so dense that it’s shady and relatively cool even when it’s ninety degrees out.

And if you walk far enough you’ll hit a gym up at the Arts Center (I have yet to explore that…I presume you can go inside).  You’ll also notice that the Pokestops are really interesting up near the arts center.

I think the statues/sculptures were all old art installations that have been relocated…because I have yet to find any of them.  I was trying to take the gym up at the arts center when these two teenage boys walked by muttering “where’s the head”, so I know I’m not the only one baffled by the missing sculptures.  Personally, I’d like to see the musical sculpture.  Those nails just look bizarre.

Does anyone else frequent the Leita Thompson Memorial Park?  I’m a little freaked out by the coyote warnings (especially one about the rabid coyote…), but there are no dates up to tell how recent they are and I have yet to see anything, so I’m probably going to continue to be brave.  There are always so many people going around the trail, walking their dogs, running, that I know I’m not the only one (being brave).  If I find out more about that, I’ll update my post.

In the mean time, what are your favorite woodsy Pokemon Go places?

Park Address:

1200 Woodstock Rd, Roswell, GA 30075