I’ve been meaning (and forgetting) to blog about this since it was released back in late April. Luckily, Friend of RichmondOutside.com (FROC), Will Loy, reminded me. There is now an iPhone and iPad app for Richmond city parks.

“This mobile app allows city residents and visitors alike to gain detailed information about our city’s great parks, facilities and amenities, while re-emphasizing the city’s efforts of developing new technologies to enhance our customers’ service experiences,” said Mayor Dwight C. Jones. “RVA Parks also provides walking and driving directions along with bus routes from each user’s current location which further enhances the experience.”

Self-aggrandizing aside, the mayor is right. I’ve downloaded the app and it’s quite user-friendly. You can search for facilities and parks or comb through a list of all of them. Once you select one, you have the option of getting directions to the park or simply seeing its location on Google Maps. Each facility page also tells you what you can do there and gives you a few, albeit grainy, pictures.

If you’re saying to yourself, ‘Hey, that sounds a lot like what RichmondOutside.com offers,’ you’re not entirely wrong. The parks app is a handy guide, but it doesn’t offer the complete experience that RichmondOutside.com does. And while we’re quite accessible on your Smartphone, we don’t have an app yet (it’s in the three-year plan). The point here is that the RVA Parks app is useful and, considering it’s free, is worth putting in your quiver.