At 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 17, a dog parade will start on ground that once held an 18-hole course with a driving range, a pro shop and a snack bar. The parade is new this year, and it is part of Treats, Tails & Trails at Twining Valley Park in Dresher. It is also the first of three township events at the park this fall. Each one is set on something Upper Dublin added after it took the land back from golf. The dog event uses the trails next to the new dog park, the evening walk uses the meadows the township is letting grow back, and the Thanksgiving 5K runs on the new paved loop.
Some pieces haven't been built yet, and those shape a visit just as much.
Six years of deciding, then a park
Upper Dublin bought the 105-acre property in 1968, according to Around Ambler. For most of the years after that, a private operator ran it, first as Twining Valley Golf & Fitness Club and later as Upper Dublin Golf & Fitness Club. The township's 2017 land-use feasibility study said the course was losing money under its contracted operator, Links Management Inc.
Here is how the change happened:
- 2014: A feasibility study begins.
- June 2017: The township publishes its land-use feasibility report. One conceptual park option in it carried a $9,884,250 estimate. That was a planning figure, not what the township ended up spending.
- November 2019: Phase-one grant funding reaches $520,000, Around Ambler reported.
- December 1, 2019: Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation takes over management after the Board of Commissioners chose park conversion. A public opening was scheduled for December 9.
- April 2024: Phase one is done, with a dog park and new trails, WissNow reported.
- May 2025 to June 2026: A bike playground goes in, then four pickleball courts.
The township has added features one at a time, mostly when grant money came through. That is why the fall calendar works the way it does.
October 17: costumes on the trail
Treats, Tails & Trails runs from 10 a.m. to noon. Dog-focused local organizations hand out treats along the trail, the costume contest runs from 10 to 11 a.m. with cash prizes, and the parade starts at 11. You don't need to register, and trick-or-treating lasts as long as supplies do.
The trails it uses are shared with the Twining Valley Dog Park, which opened in phase one. It has three off-leash enclosures sorted by dog weight and its own parking lot at 1487 Twining Road. The rest of the park is open to dogs on a leash. Keep your dog leashed until you're inside the transition corral.
There is no water at the dog park yet. The township says that side of Twining Road has no public water, and bringing it in depends on a separate project at Sunny Willow Swim Club. If you're coming for a two-hour costume event, bring a water bowl.
The same morning, the township's Adopt-A-Tree pickup runs from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Upper Dublin Library, 520 Virginia Drive. The township offered 150 native trees, reserved first come, first served. Native planting is the same work going on across Twining Valley, so a reserved tree in the morning and the dog parade at 11 fit together.
November 7: walking the land the township is letting grow back
Moonlit Magic is a free evening walk from 5 to 7 p.m., and you have to preregister. The township describes it as a route "through woodlands and open meadows, guided by the sights and sounds of the park after dark."
Those woodlands and meadows are on purpose. The township's development page says staff, volunteers and contractors are pulling out invasive plants, encouraging native ones and creating habitat, and that oak, maple, sweetgum and cherry saplings are coming up "all over the property." In 2024, park staff told WissNow that the land toward Susquehanna Road was turning into forest and the other side into meadow. The 2017 study also recorded three man-made ponds once used to water the course and noted that they now serve as wildlife habitat.
So the night walk takes you through the fairways as they turn back into woods and meadow. The township says that process still needs help, because invasive plants can smother the native growth, and it points volunteers to its UD C.A.R.E.S. events.
November 15: a 5K on the paved loop
The Twining Valley Turkey Trot is a run, walk or trot 5K "on the asphalt trails at Twining" from 9 to 11 a.m., with a gift card for a Thanksgiving meal among the prizes. Register by Friday, October 23, to guarantee a shirt.
The race works because of what phase one paved. WissNow reported about three miles of asphalt trail and two miles of single-track built for bikes, with an outer paved loop of 1.85 miles. A 5K is about 3.1 miles, which is more than one lap of the outer loop. The township hasn't posted a course map.
That weekend is busy nearby. In Ambler Borough, NOIR CITY: Philadelphia runs November 13 to 15 at the Ambler Theater, 108 E. Butler Ave., with nine classic noir films and appearances by Eddie Muller. The theater says full-weekend passes are sold out, but tickets for individual films are still available. Five days later, the Ambler Symphony opens its 75th season on November 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin High School Performing Arts Center on Loch Alsh Avenue. The program includes Holst's The Planets.
What arrived since last fall
Two additions this year mean the park is getting use on more than event days.
Construction on the bike playground started May 14, 2025, with a paved route and a crushed-stone path, and the parks department said grants covered all of it, according to Around Ambler. It is now open to children 12 and under and works for bikes, trikes, scooters, big wheels and wheelchairs. The entrance is a crushed-stone path next to the "Bike Playground" feather flag off the stone parking lot. The township calls it the first phase of a planned Graduated Bike Park.
The four pickleball courts opened after a June 29, 2026 township announcement, Around Ambler reported. The courts are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or sunset, seven days a week. Play is first come, first served, with a two-hour limit for regular organized groups, and outside groups charging fees aren't allowed. The same report said Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation planned to start a pickleball league in the fall. The township still lists windscreens, more benches, signs and a bike rack as coming soon.
What the calendar still has to work around
What's missing affects every visit. Twining Road splits the park, and the township strongly discourages crossing it. Use the tunnel near the main parking lot instead. There's no tunnel at Ayr Lane yet. PennDOT won't allow a crosswalk there because of traffic speeds and the valley location, and the township calls a tunnel there expensive and difficult.
Restrooms are temporary too. There are portable toilets in the main lot and the dog park lot. The restrooms in the park building are open weekends from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., April through November, depending on weather. November is the last month of that schedule. Those hours overlap the Sunday morning Turkey Trot, but they end two hours before Moonlit Magic starts at 5 p.m.
The building is the former clubhouse. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation runs programs there to make up for space lost to damage at the Township and Public Works Buildings. The township has made no long-term plan for it and says any decision will be discussed in public first.
The rest of the list is still plans:
- Pumptrack: An asphalt track for all ages, open to bikes, skateboards, scooters, adaptive wheelchairs and roller blades. The township will look for funding after other park projects are done.
- Restrooms, pavilion, naturalized playground: Each one will need its own grant.
- Upper plateau master plan: On April 14, 2026, commissioners took up a DCNR grant application for $12,500 toward a $23,000 plan. The plan would set priorities and costs for items such as a pavilion, restrooms, play and exercise areas, paved parking and shade.
- Sunny Willow connector trail: The same April agenda asked to authorize a $175,000 grant application. The township has easement agreements with Sunny Willow Swim Club and the Upper Dublin School District Board, and construction documents are drawn up. Funding hasn't been secured. This is also the project that would bring water to the dog park.
For this fall, park at 1400 Twining Road for the main trails and the bike playground, or at 1487 for the dog park and the pathway the township points to for reaching the pickleball courts.
At Matthew Desantis, we follow how places like Twining Valley change from one season to the next, because new courts, trails and tunnels change how a street in Dresher or Maple Glen works day to day. If you'd like to talk about what the park's next phase could mean for your part of Upper Dublin, Contact Us.
