Sugarbush Park is a large park and nature area located north of Plymouth Road in the northeast corner of the city. View the Ann Arbor Parks and Nature Areas map for location context. Sugarbush provides 27 acres of accessible trails and activities. This park is split into three parcels and has many entrances. The park has tennis courts, a softball/baseball field, a basketball court, two playgrounds, picnic tables, benches, a small sledding hill and a natural area. There is a paved pathway that provides connections through the mowed park areas. This paved path receives winter snow clearing. See this map to view the paved and nature path options at Sugarbush Park.
The park's main parcel has a wooded nature area with trails winding through it. These trails connect to the paved paths near the game courts and one of the playgrounds. This park features two unique native trees: blue ash and pawpaws. Some spring wildflowers that you might encounter in Sugarbush Park include bloodroot, May-apple and both great white trillium and uncommon drooping trillium. Later in the spring, you may be lucky enough to find some rarer plants like wood-betony and black snakeroot.
Park Notices
Unless otherwise posted per City Council resolution, when a park is closed, no person shall remain in or enter it other than to quietly sit or walk.
Refer to Chapter 39 of the City of Ann Arbor Code of Ordinances for park regulations and rules.
Park Hours
6 a.m. - Midnight
Amenities
Paved Paths
Nature Trails
Playground
Sledding Hill
Picnic Tables
Tennis Court
Landfill & Recycling Bins
Baseball & Softball Diamond
Basketball Court
There are no parking lots at Sugarbush, but there is lots of street parking in the neighborhood around the park. There are many points of access into the park.
The park is split into three sections by Rumsey Drive and Yellowstone Drive. The main section of the park, which contains the tennis and basketball courts, is accessible via street parking and sidewalks on Rumsey and Yellowstone. The Yellowstone entrance is also where the entrance to the eastern portion of the park is located, which contains another playground. There is no street parking on Green Rd. The northern section of the park can be accessed via street parking on Cedarbrook Rd, and by path and sidewalk from Rumsey. The northern and eastern sections of the park are accessible on foot and bicycle via Green Road, which has bike lanes and sidewalks.
The Sugarbush Trail runs through a wooded area within the park. There are entrances to the Sugarbush Trail through the central section of the park, entrances on Yellowstone Drive and Bluett Road and off of Georgetown Boulevard.
There is a bus stop at the park on Green Road. There are several bus stops on Green Road and on Plymouth Road within a 10 minute walk to the park. Visit TheRide for closest stops and route details or check out the parks ride guide.
Ann Arbor's city parks sit on the ancestral and traditional homelands of several indigenous Native peoples. Read a land acknowledgement from the city and learn more about the early history of the land here.
Sugarbush Park was acquired by the Department of Parks and Recreation in 1968. At the time, the only houses in that area were those on Bromley Court and the US-23 and M-14 sections of Ann Arbor’s highway ring were not yet constructed. There were plans afoot for the construction of several housing developments thereby creating a future need for a neighborhood park. Since then, Sugarbush Park has evolved into a diverse park with play areas, a ball diamond and a natural area.
The natural area of Sugarbush Park extends north from Bluett Road between Georgetown Boulevard and Yellowstone Drive. This area is primarily a beech-maple woodland with a somewhat unusual assemblage of plants including several that are found in no other park in Ann Arbor. If you enter from one of the two Bluett entrances and follow the trail north, you will come across a small pawpaw (Asimina triloba) grove on the east side of the path. The pawpaw is an understory tree that grows to a height of 10-20 feet. The fruit of this tree is the largest fruit native to North America and is reminiscent of a short, fat banana. It is considered desirable by some, although it is often eaten by wildlife before it is ripe enough to be palatable to human tastes. A second unusual tree found in the woods of Sugarbush is the four-angled or blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata). It receives these names from the blue dye that was made from its inner bark, and from its twigs which are usually more square than round. We only have this species in one other park in Ann Arbor (Bird Hills). Another notable tree that can be found at Sugarbush is flowering dogwood. These small native trees have large white flowers in the spring.
Plants are not the only interesting things that can be found in Sugarbush Park. In a small vernal pool in the southwest corner of the park, whole communities of invertebrates and amphibians have evolved to use this temporary aquatic habitat. Wood frogs, spring peepers, and other frog species breed in the vernal pool, and red-backed salamanders live in the woods here too. Reach out to Natural Area Preservation for more information on efforts to protect and restore Ann Arbor's natural areas.
Click on the links below for Natural Area Preservation (NAP) Newsletter features on Sugarbush:
Volunteer in the parks
Looking to make an impact in a park or nature area? Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation provides volunteer opportunities for almost every interest, ability, and commitment level.
Park Finder
Discover parks and find amenities through the City of Ann Arbor Park Finder. This map allows you to search park names or search by amenity type or keyword.
A2Fix It - Service request tool
A2 Fix It is an online system you can use to report any maintenance issues or other problems during your park visit. When reporting an issue in a park please include detailed location information in the "details and description" section near the end of the request process. Pictures that provide location context are very helpful.
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