Recreation, Sports & Entertainment
The valley offers year-round recreational opportunities, with many parks, five public swimming pools, golf courses, softball and soccer fields, and 36 public tennis courts within the City of Yakima, Apple Tree Golf Course, located in an orchard in West Yakima, includes a par-3 apple-shaped island; other public courses include Suntides, and two nine-hole courses, Westwood and Fisher Park.

Walk, bike, roller blade or jog on the Yakima Greenway, a ten-mile paved path that follows the Yakima River and borders the City of Yakima; it includes a string of parks, shady nooks, lakes and playgrounds. The Yakima Area Arboretum borders the Greenway.

Two spectacular Cascade Range mountain passes, White and Chinook, and Mt. Rainier National Park, are less than an hour’s drive from Yakima. The ski area at White Pass — with five lifts, 350 inches of annual snowfall and a 1,500 foot vertical drop — offers downhill and cross-country skiing and snowboarding and has produced two Olympic medallists. The area offers stream and lake fishing, big game hunting, backpacking, hiking, road and mountain biking, rock climbing, boating, swimming, lake sailing and water skiing, upland birding and windsurfing in the Columbia Gorge.

10 miles northwest of Yakima is the Yakima River Canyon, a designated state scenic route offering excellent wildlife viewing, fishing, river rafting, and camping. The canyon attracts bald eagles, river otters, coyotes, cougars, elk, bear, deer and bighorn sheep. The Yakima River is considered a "blue-ribbon" catch-and-release trout stream by Washington anglers and there are many outfitters who provide guided outings.

White water enthusiasts come from throughout the Northwest each September to the annual Flip-Flop, which turns the nearby Tieton River into a white water rafter’s and kayaker’s dream. The river is a fast-paced intermediate run that is consistently good due to the annual agricultural water release that more than doubles the river’s normal flow.

Entertainment events include the ten-day Central Washington State Fair, auto-racing, rodeos, and colorful community celebrations, fiestas, pow wows and festivals. The Yakima Sundome attracts concerts, home and garden shows and indoor sporting events and the Gorge Amphitheater, 90 minutes away, offers major rock, blues and country concerts playing to 20,000 in a stunning natural amphitheater with the Columbia River as a backdrop.

In addition to an array of youth and adult recreation programs — including volleyball, softball, and soccer — the Yakima Valley offers three seasons of professional sports, including the Single A Yakima Bears baseball team, the Yakima Reds soccer team, and the Yakima SunKings Continental Basketball Association team.

Touring professional and local performing arts are regularly presented at the beautifully restored vaudeville theatre in the heart of downtown Yakima, the Capitol Theatre. The Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Chorus, Community Concert Series, Town Hall Lectures and the "Best of Broadway" series are all part of the annual arts offerings. An active community theater group performs at the Warehouse Theater. The Allied Arts Council coordinates, encourages and promotes the arts throughout Yakima County. Art galleries, the Yakima Valley Museum, Washington's Millennium Arts Plaza and the Yakima Nation Cultural Center are among the valley’s attractions.

The North Front Street Historic District in downtown Yakima offers activities and one-of-a-kind shops, services and restaurants located in authentic railroad cars and an early Opera House. Just a few blocks away, the Yakima Farmer's Market is held weekly during the growing season.