13+ Things to do in Marysville, Washington

We spent one year living in Marysville (aside from the time I lived there previously) so I thought we could give it a post! I realize that right now people can’t do much but some of these attractions in Marysville may still be possible and for the rest, you can make plans for later. 

Map of things to do in Marysville, Washington

This map shows you some of the surrounding activities. Just zoom in to see what you can do in Marysville specifically (mentioned in post).

Info about Marysville, Washington

• • In the 19th-century the area was a trading post for timber. Learn more about the history of Marysville here or here. 
  • In the 1920s, Marysville was home to many strawberry farms. Thus a nickname for Marysville is “The Strawberry City”. 
  • Marysville borders the Tulalip Indian Reservation, home to the Tulalip tribes.
  • Looking around from different points in Marysville you can see Mount Pilchuck, the Cascade Mountains, and the Olympic Mountains.
  • With a population of around 60,000, it’s the second-largest city in Snohomish County. In 1980 the population was around 5,000 and in 2000 it was around 25,000. In recent years it has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the state of Washington.

Activities/Things to do Near Marysville

There are many activities you can do near Marysville, Washington. While traffic can definitely add time to any of these, your starting point is only around:

• 10 min to Everett which has activities like the Boeing Factory, parks, and other flight-related museums
• 15 minutes to Lake Stevens which is a nice place to kayak or do other water activities
• 20 min to Granite Falls (hiking/nature)
• 30 min to Mount Vernon, home to Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, or Edmonds, home to some beach parks and a nice little downtown which includes the Rick Steves’ Europe store
• 45 min to Seattle
• 1 hour to Bellingham and Snoqualmie (both cute towns which each offer a nice waterfall) as well as a little over an hour to Whidbey Island or Deception Pass. If you go a little farther in either direction you can also do things like white water rafting and whale watching. 
• 1.5-2 hours to Olympia (the capital of Washington) and North Cascades National Park
• 2 hours from Vancouver
• 2.5 hours to Leavenworth (cute Bavarian-themed town)
• 3 hours to Mount Rainier National Park
• 3.5 hours to Olympic National Park or Portland, Oregon
• And even more towns and nature trails! Plus there are seasonal events and festivals in the surrounding areas.

If you do want to do a specific trail in some of the national parks, it can take longer, though. Also, Marysville has a bit of a strange shape and times could vary slightly depending on where you’re coming from in town. 

What to Do in Marysville

Now, onto some of the things you can do IN Marysville.

1. Marysville Town Center

Marysville does, in fact, have a town center! My grandma calls it downtown Marysville. Don’t expect to see any skyscrapers, but there is a pleasant street with cute locally owned businesses. You can go for a walk and grab a pastry, shop for antiques, or get a new book. It’s especially nice in the winter when they add the Christmas decorations and music. If we took any pics there we can’t find them and I don’t see any online of what I’m talking about so I’ll have to snap one and add it in next time we’re over there. 

2. Tulalip Resort Casino

The casino is on the adjacent reservation, but most locals will view it as a sort of extension of the town. You can gamble there or catch a show in the ballroom every so often. Visitors can find an award-winning hotel with an onsite spa. There are also seven restaurants. My grandparents took us to the buffet there for Kyle’s birthday last year and it was really good!

3. Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve

Hibulb Cultural Center is the first Tribal facility certified by the state of Washington. This is a great place to learn about the Tulalip tribes. There are quite a few nice exhibits with a variety of artifacts, videos, and more in this 23,000 square feet museum. The center also sometimes hosts instructional learning classes, particularly for children. There is a gift shop as well. I would really recommend this to both people who live in the area and haven’t been and people visiting from elsewhere.

4. Ebey Waterfront

We frequently visited Ebey Waterfront from two locations. One area was the most common location for our evening walk. We walked the trail in the other location as well a couple of times but also used that area to launch our kayak. That second area is closer to downtown and also has a boat launch, bathrooms, picnic tables and a park for children.

We’ve been using this blow-up kayak but you can get a regular kayak if you want. You need to assemble/blow up and disassemble the kayak each time but it doesn’t take too long and you can put it all in a large bag when you’re done.

Trails are bike-friendly. The trails overlook Qwuloolt Estuary and you may have opportunities for bird watching or see blackberries and wildflowers in the summer. We even saw otters a couple of times. There are also some signs on/around the trail giving you more information about this area.

5. Deering Wildflower Acres

This site was originally established in the 1960s as a survey site for biologists from Western Washington University but in 1996 the university gave the park to the City of Marysville.

Deering Wildflower Acres wasn’t far from where we were living in Marysville and so it was a nice little trail for us to do occasionally. I think it’s a bit of a secret in town as we rarely saw anyone else there. There are a few little trail options. All are mostly flat and heavily forested but you can also get some pond views and traverse some bridges. Depending on the time of year you may run into some spiders or mosquitos (maybe bring some protection) but it does feel pretty natural and there are a couple of benches if you want to sit. If this was Florida there would be alligators but it is Washington so we didn’t need to worry. I believe it is bike and pet-free though so keep that in mind for a visit.

Note that it basically feels like you are parking in someone’s yard but that’s just the caretakers’ living quarters.  On that note, the first two times we went we accidentally turned early and went down someone’s actual private driveway. They happened to be leaving and asked us what we were doing. Both times.

We visited multiple times but I can’t find pics of this either nor can I find any available for reuse. You can find some here, though.

6. Jennings Memorial Park and Jennings Nature Park

Jennings Park could practically have its own post with all it has to offer. We would sometimes go there before or after visiting my great-grandma each weekend as it was nearby the location she ended up moving to. 

Marysville Historical Society 

Marysville Historical Society is a historical museum in the park. It focuses on the history of the area but a lot of it is relevant to anywhere in the U.S. and can be a fun dive into history in general. They have also incorporated the Norwesco Telephone Museum.
After we visited and I showed my great-grandma some pictures of the old telephones, she told us fun stories about getting the first phone line in her area growing up. If you want to get some stories from your grandparents (or parents), there are also books to help with this. So far, among my/Kyle’s parents and grandparents, grandpa is the only one to return one but I have enjoyed it. 

Gehl Home

This 1884 home gives you a look into the lives of pioneers. It is only open a limited time of the year and outside of that time you must request a special tour, though.

Nature Trails

There are trails of varying lengths all around the park making it a nice place to go for a stroll. Some areas are more forested and some cross water giving you variety.

WSU Master Gardener Demonstration Program

This is an excellent garden and I kept forgetting to ask my grandparents if they had been as they enjoy gardening. It has a nice mix of displays including a cutting garden, a Scent Garden, a Rose garden, an English garden, a vegetable garden, and a Mulberry tree.

There were some beautiful flowers and the decor is nice as well. All the food is donated to the local food bank. If you don’t know what a demonstration garden is (I didn’t): they showcase sustainable gardening techniques appropriate for the area so if you have one around you and like to garden it can be good to check out. 

More

There is also a playground, picnic tables, a baseball field, a Kiwani’s fishing pond and so on. Some events are held here as well, including Popcorn in the Park during the summer. We regularly saw children’s birthday parties taking place here. The park has restrooms.

7. Other Parks

Other Parks we did not visit (I’m not sure why as they look nice) include Gissberg Twin Lakes (some fish here) and NorthPointe Park. Another park in Marysville which we did go to is Marysville Comeford Park but I think it is geared more at children/families with children as it is made up of playground equipment and things like that. 

8. Seasons and Seasonal Events/Occurrences 

Marysville has a great spring with tulips, daffodils, and plum blossoms blooming as well as great fall colors. There are also some seasonal events.

The Strawberry Festival

Marysville is known for its strawberry festival. There is a car show, a royal court, a parade, and more. 

Fall Activities

So I guess maybe this doesn’t fall into Marysville address-wise but we had a pumpkin patch down the street from us just outside of city lines and there are quite a few in the area including in Arlington, Lake Stevens, and Snohomish. Maybe partly because it used to be a farming area, they go big on the fall activities. At some of these same places, you can also expect to find corn mazes and zombie games.

Merrysville for the Holidays

We went to this event last year on my birthday and thought it was a pleasant gathering. It takes place each year in the Marysville Comeford Park.

Tour of Lights

The Tour of Lights involves taking a little train across a big golf course in town to see the displays they put up. Unfortunately, when we tried to go the event had sold out but even if we had been able to get tickets I’m not sure we would have wanted to wait in line. Still, it’s a nice idea and could be a good activity to do with kids. 

9. Go Golfing

On that note, for those who enjoy golfing or would like to give it a try, there are two golf courses in Marysville (Battle Creek and Cedar Crest) and more nearby.

10. Take a Class

Aside from golf instruction at either of the golf courses, there is a martial arts studio, a couple of dance studios (one which includes classes for adults), a YMCA, and a yoga studio. There are also other fitness studios and places to take art and music-related classes. Below are two places you can sometimes find free classes which we took advantage of. Marysville Martial Arts also offers a free women’s self-defense class though I didn’t know that when we were there. There may be more beyond this also. 

Marysville Library

The local library frequently hosts events and offers classes to the public. Though many of the events are geared more at children, we attended a free event on writing an ebook. They also have book clubs.

Sunnyside Nursey

Sunnyside Nursey regularly offers classes to the public. Sometimes they are free, sometimes you have to pay. You can check online or receive a schedule card. Of course, part of the point of the class is probably to get you there, but you may learn something. While living here we took a class on Bonsais with my grandma. Pics also missing unfortunately. Bonsais are a big commitment and you can get a beginner tree there or you can get a starter kit online if you’re interested.

11. Shopping

Regular Shopping

I don’t think we purchased anything you would normally shop for in Marysville out as we knew we would probably be moving again but we did still peruse from time to time. We already mentioned the Marysville town center which includes some local and chain stores.  You can find a JCPenny and a Big Lots near this area which we went to a couple of times for nostalgia since we hadn’t been around the stores in a while. They also get the Halloween store in that area in October. 

There is apparently a place called Big Box Outlet store but I didn’t know about it when we were there. Looks kind of interesting.

The big places people go on the reservation are the Seattle Premium Outlets and probably the Cabela’s.

There are other stores as well, of course, but to get an indoor mall you will need to leave town.

Grocery Stores

Marysville has the standard: Safeway, Walmart, Albertsons, Grocery Outlet, etc. as well as some of the nice western chains like Fred Meyer and Winco and WA chain Haggen which actually creates a nice offering for a city of its size. There are even some offerings beyond that as well, though.

Marysville has a Farmer’s Market, a small International (Russian/Eastern-European focused) grocery store, an Asian grocery store, and a Mexican grocery store, as well as some other grocery stores. Sometimes just trying out different grocery stores can be a nice activity.

12. Get Some Coffee

One thing we would sometimes do while in Marysville was a get a local coffee before heading out for a hike. This whole area is known for its coffee and it’s a big part of local culture. It was striking moving from California to see all the coffee stands around. There are around 15-20 in town and they often have fun names and flavors!

13. Even More

Of course, you can do some other normal things in Marysville like go out to eat at one of the restaurants, catch a movie (there is a theater in town), try the local escape room, or go skating at the Marysville skate center (seems like a family activity in Marysville). Though it may be too morbid of an activity for some, the Marysville Cemetery also has some history to it. Graves includes some of the first Marysville pioneer residents from the 1880s and the cemetery celebrates events like Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day.

Another fun activity could be going to the Marysville Skate Park. This could be for skaters, those who want to try skating, or people who just want to watch. There are also family skate hours on the weekends.

That about rounds it up. If you have something else you like to do in Marysville or have any thoughts, comment below!

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