If you've lived in Westfield for a while and haven't taken the Friendly City Trail down to Westover Park lately, the tee signs will throw you. Longtime players know the course used to run 21 holes through the cedars and ash trees behind the pool complex. Go to it now and you'll count 18. A disc golf course review updated in February 2025 notes that holes six through eleven were cut, renumbered, or rerouted entirely, and the course has settled at 18 holes with most holes now carrying two fixed basket positions instead of the old system where baskets were physically moved once a month.
Nobody tore out three holes on purpose. Two things converged on the same stretch of park at the same time: an emerald ash borer infestation killed off a run of mature ash trees along the fairways, and a new paved trail connection got built straight through the middle of the course. The trees are gone and won't come back the same way. The trail is the reason Westfield residents can now go to Westover without touching Market Street or South High Street, so the tradeoff is worth understanding rather than just noticing.
The Trail That Runs Through It
The connection is the Friendly City Trail, a 2.2-mile hard-surfaced path that links Harrisonburg High School and Bluestone Elementary to Thomas Harrison Middle School and Westover Park, running alongside Heritage Oaks Golf Course and directly through Hillandale Park along the way, according to the city's own trail documentation. For Westfield, that's the practical payoff of living where the neighborhood already sits, tucked between the golf course and two city parks with side streets that feed straight into the connected trail system rather than onto a major road.
Westover Park itself covers 48 acres and holds the swimming pool complex, the Cecil F. Gilkerson Community Activities Center, the skate park, and the disc golf course, per the city's Westover Park page. Hillandale Park, the other end of that trail, is 74 acres and the largest park in the city. That's the geography. What's changed is what you find once you're standing in it.
Hillandale's Side of the Ledger
While the disc golf course was losing ground to a bike path, the mountain bike side of the park quietly got better. The Rocktown Trails at Hillandale, a four-mile network of stacked-loop singletrack, went through a grant-funded overhaul in 2024 covering more than 5,000 feet of resurfaced trail and roughly 1,700 feet of brand new trail, according to reporting on the project. Do the math against the system's total length and that's close to a quarter of the network touched in one pass. The pump track was raised six to 12 inches and the Powerline Trail, the downhill jump line that runs under the transmission towers, got reconstructed and realigned in several spots.
The work was a joint effort between Harrisonburg Tourism, Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation, and the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, funded by a $20,000 Virginia Tourism Corporation grant and another $10,000 from the city's parks budget, with Rugged Trails and builder Sam Skidmore brought in to do the physical work. Harrisonburg Tourism Manager Jennifer Bell put the reasoning simply:
"Improving our local trails is important for both community members and visitors."
That's the same trail system that feeds into the Friendly City Trail via a 1.4-mile gravel fitness loop, so a resurfaced mountain bike loop and a smoother connection to Westover aren't two separate stories. They're the same investment showing up in two places.
The Skate Park's Second Life
Westover's skate park went through its own rebuild a few years back. The original park was torn down so a new one could be built in its place, and the rebuild took about two years, with local skaters given little advance notice at first before the process paused so the community could weigh in on the design. The finished park came in at 8,509 square feet, built by American Ramp Company and funded with roughly $535,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars, with input from professional skateboarders Cody McEntire and Julia Brueckler who helped shape the layout.
Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation facilities manager Scott Erickson summed up the mood at reopening:
"We know our community has been anticipating the reopening and eager to get back out there."
Some longtime skaters said the new layout was an upgrade over the old one but noted the park could still use shade, more trash cans, and a water fountain, the kind of practical feedback that tends to shape a second round of improvements down the line rather than a finished product.
What's Actually Running Right Now
As of this writing, Westover Pool is open for the season. A June 2026 update confirmed the pool reopened for summer with resident admission at three dollars for adults and two dollars for those under 18, and non-resident admission at six and four dollars respectively, per Rocktown Now's report. The splash pad built alongside the pool a few years back, with 14 separate water features and funded through a Community Development Block Grant, was the first of its kind in Harrisonburg or Rockingham County when it opened, and it's included with regular pool admission rather than run as a standalone free sprayground. In past seasons the pool has stayed open into the tail end of August, so there's still time this year to use it before the schedule shifts toward fall programming.
If you want a quieter version of the same loop, Heritage Oaks Golf Course, the anchor at the western edge of Westfield, opens its cart paths to people before 8 a.m. daily, according to the city's trail guide. Early risers can cover a good stretch of rolling terrain before the first tee time of the day.
The Short Version for Westfield
None of this changes what Westfield is. The neighborhood's practical floor plans, attached garages, and cul-de-sac layout haven't moved. What's changed is what's within reach of them. A venture from most Westfield streets can now string together a rebuilt skate park, a resurfaced mountain bike network, a splash pad that's a known summer fixture rather than a novelty, and a disc golf course that plays differently than it did a few years ago, all connected by a trail that doesn't ask you to cross a four-lane road to get there.
If you've been meaning to explore the Friendly City Trail end to end, this is a reasonable week to do it. Bring a scorecard if you play disc golf. The numbers on the tee signs won't match the ones you remember.
If you're curious what else has shifted in Westfield or nearby, or you're weighing a move into this part of the city, the team at Nest Realty Harrisonburg knows this stretch of town well enough to guide you through it street by street. Start Your Search when you're ready.
