Badger Mountain South Is Getting a Winter Center on Ava Way

In south Richland, where do you go when the hill is icy and the sun sets before dinner? For most of the year, Badger Mountain answers that. This November, a short stretch of Ava Way has a better answer than it has ever had. A coffee roaster, a fitness studio, a neighborhood market and a park with a brand-new playground now sit along the same street. They are all opening or finishing in the same weeks the mountain becomes a harder place to spend an afternoon.

One Address Now Holds Two of the Newest Stops

Badger Heights Plaza at 5069 Ava Way finished its first phase in March 2025, according to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. For a while after that, it was mostly a building waiting for tenants. That has changed this fall.

Ahava Coffee Roasters, the Pasco coffeehouse that signed a lease at the plaza in September 2025, is now operating there. The Tri-City Herald's food inspection roundup listed it at 5069 Ava Way under passed inspections, after a routine visit on Sept. 22.

Upstairs in Suite 203, Alma Collective has opened a boutique fitness studio. It offers reformer Pilates, mat Pilates, barre and strength classes, per the Journal's October 2026 business update. The studio's listed hours fit a short winter day well:

Those early-morning and after-work blocks are when a lot of people would otherwise be on the trail. In December, both blocks are mostly in the dark.

Next door, Country Mercantile at 5015 Ava Way rounds out the block. Its Richland store carries a deli and prepared foods, local produce, artisan breads and butters, chocolates, gourmet sauces and a gift shop. One thing catches people out every October. The corn maze, pumpkin patch and hayride belong to the Harvest Festival at the company's Pasco location on Crestloch Road, and that festival ends Saturday, Oct. 31. From November on, the Ava Way store is the Country Mercantile you have left for the season, and it works best as an everyday stop for bread, a deli lunch or a hostess gift.

The Park at the Other End Finishes as the Weather Turns

Follow Ava Way to Trowbridge Boulevard and you reach the third piece. The City of Richland started work on the next phase of West Village Community Park the week of Oct. 6, near that intersection.

The size of the project matters. The park covers about 33.70 acres next to Richland Fire Station 76, but Phase I developed only about five of them. That leaves most of the site for the neighborhood to grow into. This phase adds a new playground with surfacing and some landscaping changes. The City describes accessible and sensory play elements, climbing features, slides, swings and other interactive pieces for children of different ages and abilities.

The City's timeline, as posted on Oct. 6, runs like this:

1. Week of Oct. 6: site preparation begins near Trowbridge Boulevard and Ava Way.
2. End of November: most construction expected to be finished, weather permitting.
3. Late December: a small number of custom playground panels arrive and get installed.

Until then, the City asks residents to use caution around the construction zone and equipment. Every date on that list is an estimate that depends on the weather. Still, the target puts most of a new playground in place on the same street as the coffee shop and the market right when families with small children most need a reason to get outside for an hour. A cold, clear Saturday could easily start with a coffee at the plaza and end at the swings, all on Ava Way.

When You Still Want the Mountain, Pick the Sunny Side

On the days you do head up the mountain, the advice from Friends of Badger Mountain, the volunteer group behind the trails, is specific.

The group says the trails were not designed or maintained for winter use. They stay open, but you hike or ride at your own risk, and every trail has a real slope when it ices over. Which trailhead you choose makes a big difference:

• Westgate Trailhead, 5305 East PR 210, off Dallas Road. This is the best start for the Langdon and Skyline trails. Friends of Badger Mountain recommends Skyline in snow because wind tends to blow it clear and it catches whatever sun there is, so it melts long before the Canyon Trail.
• Trailhead Park, 525 Queensgate Dr. This is the best start for the Badger Mountain Flats, Sagebrush and Canyon trails. In winter, some parts of the Canyon Trail never see the sun. The group keeps a barrel of sand at the start of the Canyon Trail steps, but if you need it there, the rest of the trail will be slick too.

The group's other tips are short. Bring hiking poles and the grippers that strap onto your boot soles, which local sporting goods stores carry. If the roads are icy, the trails will be icy too. Come the spring thaw, stay on the trail through the muddy stretches. The ground thaws a couple of inches down while frozen earth below keeps the meltwater from soaking in, so stepping off the trail just finds more mud.

The shorter climb on the other hill

Little Badger Mountain is an approved City of Richland park. Its south-slope trail starts on Morency Drive, and Friends of Badger Mountain describes it as less than a mile to the summit. That summit is the highest point in the City of Richland. On the way up, the trail passes the largest Ice Age Floods rock found anywhere on the local ridges. A climb under a mile fits into a short winter afternoon easily.

The rest of Little Badger is still being built. The group lists a north-face trail and trailhead as the final two projects for the preserve, with construction planned for 2027 and 2028, depending on state grant funding. Little Badger trailhead and parking improvements also appear among the priorities in Richland's parks plan, adopted in July 2026, which notes that each project needs its own planning and funding. For now, Morency Drive is the way up.

December Brings the Rest of Richland Back Into Reach

The plaza and the playground cover ordinary weekdays and weekends close to home. The bigger seasonal events still happen farther north, and a few dates are worth adding to the calendar now.

Richland's Winter Wonderland 2026 opens Saturday, Dec. 5, at 5 p.m. at John Dam Plaza. The City says more activities at the Richland Community Center and Howard Amon Park will be announced later. On the same weekend, the Richland Yacht Club's 2026 schedule lists its Lighted Boat Parade for Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4 and 5. The schedule doesn't give the route yet, so check back closer to the date for viewing details.

If you take Keene Road on your way out of the neighborhood, Ground Support Coffee opened its third local shop at 2210 Keene Road this summer, according to the Journal's August 2026 business update. That gives south Richland two newer coffee options within a short drive, one on Ava Way and one on Keene.

The playground is the date to watch. The City's goal is to have most of the construction done by the end of November, with the custom panels going in during late December. If the weather cooperates, Winter Wonderland's opening night on Dec. 5 could come just after the bulk of the West Village work wraps up.

If you live in Badger Mountain South and wonder how this season's changes on Ava Way affect your home's value, Caroline Couture is happy to walk you through it with a free home valuation, with no pressure and plenty of local context.