Pickleball in Essex Junction, VT: Courts, Open Play & Indoor Play

Short answer: The center of pickleball in Essex Junction is Cascade Park, where six dedicated outdoor courts sit on Cascade Street — free, first come first served, and open to anyone. When the Vermont weather turns, The Pop runs indoor courts a few minutes away on Red Pine Circle. The one thing to know before you go: Essex Junction and Essex are two separate municipalities with two separate recreation departments, and most court directories quietly mix them up.

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The 30-second version

Cascade Park — six dedicated outdoor courts, free, drop-in. The anchor of the local scene.
Those courts exist because of a grant. A $5,000 state award in 2019 paid to convert two tennis courts into six pickleball courts.
The Pop — indoor pickleball in a converted warehouse at 131 Red Pine Circle, booked through CourtReserve. This is your November-through-April answer.
Essex Junction became its own city on July 1, 2022. Cascade Park is run by Essex Junction Rec & Parks; other nearby parks belong to the Town of Essex. Different departments, different phone numbers.
Call before you drive for anything outside Cascade — several directory listings for the area are five years stale.

Two players holding paddles on an outdoor court at sunset, the kind of evening session that defines pickleball in Essex Junction — Cascade Park’s six dedicated courts are free and first come, first served. Photo: Pexels.

Chittenden County is where Vermont pickleball is thickest, and most of the attention goes to Burlington. But if you want six dedicated courts, no fee, no reservation and no membership, the better drive is a few miles east.

Where can you play pickleball in Essex Junction?

Cascade Park is the answer, and it is not a close call.

Where: Cascade Street, Essex Junction, VT 05452 — a ten-acre park off Park Street, with tennis courts, basketball, a baseball field and playgrounds alongside the pickleball courts.
Courts: six dedicated outdoor pickleball courts with permanent nets.
Cost: free.
How it works: USA Pickleball’s Places2Play listing describes it as first come, first served with no time limit, with organized drop-in play in the mornings and priority given to official Rec & Parks programming and clinics.
Facilities: water on site and a portable restroom, per the same listing.
Who to call: Essex Junction Recreation & Parks, 802-878-1375 (office hours are 8am–4pm weekdays — that is the department, not the park).

One caution worth stating plainly: the detailed drop-in schedule above comes from a community listing last updated in 2021. The courts and the park are confirmed on the department’s own site, but if you are driving any real distance for a specific open-play time, ring the department first.

Why does a town this size have six pickleball courts?

This is my favorite thing about Essex Junction, and it is a genuinely useful story if you are trying to get courts built in your own town.

In November 2019, the Village of Essex Junction Recreation & Parks Department announced it had won a Building Communities: Recreational Facilities Grant from the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services. The award was $5,000, and it went toward converting two tennis courts into six pickleball courts at Cascade Park.

Read that ratio again. Two underused tennis courts became six pickleball courts, and the state money that unlocked it was five thousand dollars — not five hundred thousand. “We are pleased to be able to use these funds to grow our recreational options and offer more choices for our community,” said Brad Luck, the department’s director, at the time.

That is the single most repeatable play in New England pickleball right now, and Essex Junction ran it six years ago. If your town has tired tennis courts and a rec director who will listen, we have a whole guide on how court funding actually works.

Where can you play indoors near Essex Junction?

The Pop, at 131 Red Pine Circle, is the indoor answer — and technically it sits just over the line in the Town of Essex, in an industrial park across from Bellcate School and Blodgett Oven.

Owner Laney Bevill, a former architect, opened it in December 2024 in a converted warehouse, laying the courts around a central social space. The Essex Reporter profiled the place in February 2025 and the detail that stuck with me is the rhythm of the day: busy in the mornings with retired players, quiet midday, then packed again after work. That is a healthy room.

Where: 131 Red Pine Circle, Essex, VT 05452. Phone (802) 876-7527.
Hours: reservations 6am–9pm Monday–Friday, 7am–9pm Saturday and Sunday.
Booking: through CourtReserve, which is also where open play sessions, leagues and events are listed.
Cost: non-members are welcome to book. As of the Essex Reporter’s February 2025 profile, individual memberships ran $29 per month or $330 per year — confirm current pricing before you commit.
Bonus: a Pop membership also covers the Spear Street Pickleball Club, a partner club at 5353 Spear Street in Shelburne.

Note that The Pop does not publish a court count on its own site, and I am not going to repeat one from a directory I cannot verify. CourtReserve will show you live availability, which is more useful anyway. For the wider winter picture, our roundup of indoor pickleball across New England covers the rest of the region.

A player in ready position with a paddle at the kitchen line on an outdoor pickleball court — When Vermont weather closes the outdoor courts, The Pop on Red Pine Circle takes over. Photo: Pexels.

What is the Essex versus Essex Junction thing?

Here is the part that trips up every court directory, and probably a few visitors.

Essex Junction was an incorporated village inside the Town of Essex from 1892 onward, which meant residents belonged to two municipalities at once. In November 2021, village voters approved separation by 3,070 to 411. Governor Phil Scott signed the charter change the following April, and on July 1, 2022, Essex Junction became Vermont’s tenth city — the state’s first municipal separation in a century, the last being Winooski splitting from Colchester in 1922.

For a pickleball player, the practical consequences are real:

Two rec departments. Essex Junction Recreation & Parks (75 Maple Street) runs Cascade Park. The Town of Essex has its own separate Parks and Recreation department, with its own parks, programs and registration system.
Two sets of addresses. The Pop’s mailing address is Essex, not Essex Junction, even though every directory files it under Essex Junction.
Directories have not caught up. National listing sites still lump the two together, which is why you will find conflicting addresses and court counts for the same area.

The most common casualty is Sand Hill Park. Community listings from 2021 credit it with four dedicated pickleball courts, but it is a Town of Essex park and the town’s own materials describe tennis courts there. I could not confirm dedicated pickleball striping at Sand Hill or at Pearl Street Park from any official source, so I am not going to tell you they are there. Cascade Park is the one I would drive to. If you want to chase the others, call the Town of Essex Parks and Recreation department directly.

What else is worth the drive nearby?

South Burlington — Szymanski Park (32 Andrews Avenue): four outdoor courts with lights for evening play, right on the bike path. About fifteen minutes from Cascade Park.
Burlington: the biggest concentration of play in the state. Our Burlington pickleball guide has the full rundown.
Shelburne — Spear Street Pickleball Club: worth knowing about if you end up with a Pop membership.
Southern Vermont: a very different scene, covered in our Bennington guide.

For everything else in the state, the Vermont pickleball hub and our New England court directory are the fastest way to find something near you.

What should you bring to Cascade Park?

Your own net is not needed — the courts have permanent nets, which is the main reason they beat a taped-up tennis court.
Outdoor balls. These are outdoor courts; indoor balls will misbehave in any wind.
Water. Listed as available on site, but Vermont park water fountains are seasonal — bring your own between October and May.
Layers. Chittenden County mornings are cold well into June and again by mid-September. Morning drop-in is the busiest session, and it is also the coldest.
A paddle that suits you. If you are still borrowing one, our paddle finder narrows it down in a couple of minutes.

New to the game entirely? Start with how to play pickleball, and if you would rather learn properly than pick up bad habits, here is what to look for in a first lesson.

Frequently asked questions

Where can you play pickleball in Essex Junction, VT?

Cascade Park on Cascade Street has six dedicated outdoor pickleball courts with permanent nets, free and open to the public. The Pop, at 131 Red Pine Circle in neighboring Essex, offers indoor courts booked through CourtReserve.

Are the Essex Junction pickleball courts free?

Yes. The courts at Cascade Park are free and listed as first come, first served with no time limit, though Essex Junction Recreation & Parks programs and clinics take priority on the schedule.

Is there indoor pickleball in Essex Junction?

The nearest indoor option is The Pop at 131 Red Pine Circle, which is technically in the Town of Essex rather than the City of Essex Junction. It is open 6am to 9pm on weekdays and 7am to 9pm on weekends, with reservations through CourtReserve.

What is the difference between Essex and Essex Junction?

They are two separate municipalities. Essex Junction was a village within the Town of Essex until July 1, 2022, when it became Vermont’s tenth city. Each now has its own recreation department, so Cascade Park is run by Essex Junction while parks like Sand Hill belong to the Town of Essex.

How did Essex Junction get six pickleball courts?

In 2019 the Essex Junction Recreation & Parks Department received a $5,000 Building Communities: Recreational Facilities Grant from the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services, which it used to convert two tennis courts at Cascade Park into six pickleball courts.

Sources and verification: court and park details from Essex Junction Recreation & Parks; the grant announcement from the City of Essex Junction; The Pop’s hours and address from thepopvt.com and the Essex Reporter’s February 2025 profile. Drop-in schedules come from community listings and change often — confirm before you drive.

Written by Jason Regan, USA Pickleball ambassador and founder of Regan Family Pickleball. Know something about the Essex Junction scene I got wrong or left out? Tell me — these town guides get better when locals correct them.