This is going back a few weeks to our bike ride out to Mississippi Gateway Regional Park in Brooklyn Park, but I want to be sure I cover the actual playground at this large park. In the “Part 1” post I only talked about the Mini-Mississippi water feature, which I think is really the distinguishing feature. But I know the playground has a somewhat distinctive design which may be of some interest.
The playground is built against a slope, and integrates directly with a new “tree top” elevated boardwalk that begins at the interpretative nature center of this park. This gives the park a multi-level layout, from the trail, down a larger structure via ladders and slides, and then even another level down via slides situated directly on the slope.
The overall impression is of a giant sprawling treehouse. The top deck coming off the trail has some covered sections shaped like small houses. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they fall short. In photos they fun, but in reality it’s just a regular path (though it does require a 6′ adult to duck ever so slightly). There is nothing to keep a get interested that covered portion, like play panels or imaginative play stations like a window or counter. View these as more of an ornamental gateway to the playground.
The larger portion of the structure, with the central rope net ladder to take you down to ground level, is host to two slides, a fire pole, and not much else. My perspective from up top was concern that my youngest, a 1.5 year old, was basically stuck on the top portion with no way to reach the bottom without braving the central net ladder. Those net ladders are difficult for adults to get through as well, so basically I was hoping my 5 year old wouldn’t venture down there. The only other way to get down to that lower level was to walk to the end of the tree top trail and find any alternate path down the slope. If I really needed to get between levels, this would be a huge pain– if you have a runner, I wouldn’t recommend this playground.
A quick aside: Is anyone else tired of these telescope viewfinder pieces at playgrounds? They are almost universally installed much too high for the kids that actually want to use them, such that when they are angled down towards the ground (or even the horizon) the required eye height increases to like five feet. Particularly noted at this park.
One further level below there is small set of tree climbers, which you can reach via some additional slides built onto the slope. This slope does have a set of stone steps. You can see in this photo below how far you might be walking to reach the end of the tree top trail before you might be able to come down to this area from up above.
Overall, I wasn’t a huge fan of this playground. Possibly there is an age group where this works out great, or as a good spot to take school groups that are here at Mississippi Gateway for other reasons. But for that age where you still have to be able to follow your kid around a bit it will be tough to keep up.
Maybe my biggest gripe is the typical “sure, this is a fine playground, but with the budget it was given…it would be hard to not be fine.”