Seattle's Child: Destination Play

June 2006

Destination PLAY!
Local Playgrounds Worth a Special Trip

When my daughter Colleen was little, we used to spend hours in a little pocket park in Kirkland we called the “Mommy and Leenie Park.” Van Aalst Park now has a typical pink, purple and yellow climbing and sliding structure, but when we went there it had a little wooden fort, a couple of faded-looking spring toys and some straggly trees around an open field where we played hide and seek. Somehow, we found plenty to do.

Neighborhood parks are great, but with the longer days of summer, it’s worth taking a trip to some of the area’s outstanding playgrounds. The ones we’ve selected go beyond the ordinary fort/climb/slide play structure and usually have other family-friendly attractions around them. Most have grassy fields for spreading out a picnic blanket and/or picnic tables and shelters. Remember to pack lunches, snacks, water, sunscreen and some entertainment for the car ride over.

These Snohomish and King County parks are listed north to south, with a side trip to the Eastside. Unless noted, parks have public restrooms and picnic tables and/or shelters.

Forest Park
802 E. Mukilteo Blvd., Everett
This “100-acre wood” park has a large, colorful play structure next to a big field and forest trails. A major attraction is the Animal Farm, where children can wander freely among rabbits, ducks, pigs, goats, ponies and llamas. The farm is open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. daily June 3 - Aug. 20, with free admission. The swim center has been closed for renovation due to an arson fire, but is expected to reopen sometime this month.

Meadowdale Neighborhood Park
5700 168th St. S.W., Lynnwood
In addition to two compound play structures, scaled for older and younger climbers, the play area boasts a cable ride and a large digging area strewn with giant boulders. Look for an art installation made from cedar trees cut from the park. Restrooms are ADA-accessible.

Edmonds City Park
Third Ave. S. and Howell Way, Edmonds
The expansive play structure has safe areas for tots and lots of variety for older kids, as well as a huge tractor tire children can climb into. Toddlers can paddle in the small wading pool, and older children may enjoy exploring the woods or playing in the stream. There’s a hill to roll down and a large field to run in. Find the Edmonds Marsh interpretive trail across the street and beaches a couple of blocks away.

St. Edward State Park
14500 Juanita Drive N.E., Kenmore
This three-year-old, all-wood, neighborhood-built playground is the best in the region. Kids can explore the Medieval-themed turrets, towers, passageways, bridges, slides and hiding places for hours, finding bits of art and hidden treasures along the way. A climbing wall is built into one side of the enclosure, next to some high swings. The enclosed Owl Forest toddler area has a wooden airplane to climb into, a little house to hide in and plenty of manipulative toys. Short trails in the huge wooded park lead through an old orchard or steeply down to the pebbly beach (not stroller or bicycle friendly).

Carkeek Park
950 N.W. Carkeek Park Road, Seattle
Artists designed the play area so that children enter a giant salmon slide through the mouth and come out the other end. The environmental theme extends to a hollow log that kids can crawl through, concrete “tide pools” they can explore and shelters they can hide in. There are also traditional swings and seesaws. The surrounding park includes a wetland, salmon-bearing stream, forested trails, an old orchard and beaches. Free and low cost programs are offered at the Environmental Learning Center, open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. weekdays.

Annie’s Playground at Meadowbrook
10533 35th Ave. N.E., Seattle
Community members who planned and built this special two-year-old playground say they can feel the spirit of Annie, who died a few days before her third birthday. Besides a huge compound play structure with four slides, you’ll find swings, a whirl, a sandbox and a cave to hide in. Children (and adults) who love details will delight in the salmon migration tile mural and the art tiles lining the seating walls and benches.

Junior League Playground at Magnuson Park
6500 Sand Point Way N.E.
Play structures include a crawl-through area for toddlers and four climbing/sliding structures for different age groups, as well as two sets of swings. Toddlers and preschoolers can bike and trike on plenty of flat, paved surfaces or play in the sand pit. The adjoining basketball court has high and low hoops. There’s easy access to “Kite Hill,” the off-leash dog area and trails to the beach. There are no restrooms except two porta-potties.

Gasworks Park
2101 N. Northlake Way, Seattle
The advantage to this park is that the brightly painted machinery for climbing on is enclosed in a huge covered barn for rainy-day fun. This playground, on the site of the old city gas and coal plant, makes a change from playing on the usual fort-type structures, and the barn has plenty of places to play hide and seek. A big arc swing and a slide and climbing area outside are too tall for younger children, but fun for grade-schoolers. Kids love the big walk-on sundial at the top of Gasworks’ “Kite Hill.”

Lincoln Park
8011 Fauntleroy Way S.W., Seattle
On a hot day, mature trees mercifully shade the park’s two play areas and its wide, grassy field. The big wading pool is in the sun. Other attractions include a wide, paved path along the narrow, pebbly beach for strolling or riding bikes. Colman Pool, an Olympic-sized, outdoor, heated, saltwater pool with a giant tube slide and diving boards is open daily from mid-June to early September.

Alki Playfield
5817 S. W. Lander St., Seattle
This playground, next to Alki Elementary School and the Alki Community Center, is known as the “Whale Tail Playground” because of the huge whale’s tail rising from the wavelike surface. The colorful, meandering play structures, with lighthouse and boat themes, are ADA-accessible. There are play areas for basketball, tennis, soccer and baseball.

Perrigo Community Park
9011 196th Ave. N.E., Redmond
This two-year-old park gets high marks from moms for its great sand box, complete with sand toys and a backhoe, its extra-nice, ADA-accessible bathrooms and its safe distance from any major streets. There’s a large, multi-faceted play structure and swings, as well as open fields, trails and sports courts.

Peter Kirk Park
202 3rd St., Kirkland
The colorful play structure isn’t particularly outstanding, but there’s plenty to do if the kids get tired of climbing and sliding. If it’s a hot day, you can go next door to the outdoor pool (open June - Labor Day). If it’s raining you can visit the large regional library. And if you’re hungry, you can walk to the Park Place Shopping Center or the concession stand next to the baseball field or (on Wednesdays), to the farmer’s market across from the library. Older kids can enjoy the skate park.

Bellevue Downtown Park
10201 NE 4th St. Bellevue
The bright castle-themed play structures are a change from the ordinary for younger children. The area includes a pretend moat, spring horses for little knights to gallop on, a dragon toy and an alligator toy. There’s one climber for older children. The rest of the park is fairly passive, with a nice strolling or triking path next to canals and manicured lawns across from Bellevue Square. Restrooms are ADA-accessible.

Kelsey Creek Park
410 130th Place S.E., Bellevue
The play area for small children is nice, but a bigger draw for most kids is the little stream to dam up and paddle in – especially if it’s nice and muddy. This charming park also boasts nature trails through forests, wetlands and meadows and a gravel loop through the working farm, filled with goats, sheep, ponies, pigs and other animals. The farm is open 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. daily, and there is no admission charge.

Gene Coulon Beach Park
1201 Lake Washington Blvd. N., Renton
The huge, multi-faceted play structures have more for older kids to do than many playgrounds. The park has one of the best swimming beaches in the area, along with lots of walking trails, horseshoe pits, sand volleyball courts and ADA-accessible restrooms. If you don’t want to pack your own food, Ivar’s and Kidd Valley have restaurants on site.

Jones Park
Wells Ave. S. at the Cedar River, Renton
Little ones can crawl through a lion’s mouth into this play structure, as well as bounce on a bulldozer spring toy or explore a giant sea serpent or frog. The park is attractively situated on the riverbank.

Ed Munro Seahurst Park
140th Avenue and 16th Avenue S.W., Burien
Besides a great man-made playground, this park has a beautiful saltwater beach with a natural playground of rocks and driftwood. There’s a wide, level, packed gravel path following the beach for two miles, as well as plenty of wooded trails.

Children’s Play Area
Sea-Tac Airport, Tukwila
The 1,400-square-foot children’s play area, opened this spring at Sea-Tac Airport, is located near the confluence of the A and B concourses and is open to ticketed passengers only. It’s designed for kids 6 and younger and includes slides, tunnels and climbing structures in the shape of a control tower, airplane, baggage cart and mock-up of the airport’s Central Terminal. The walls and floors are padded, and there’s plenty of comfortable seating for adults, as well as rocking chairs for nursing mothers. There is no charge to use the play area.

Wenda Reed is editor of Seattle’s Child and Puget Sound Parent and mother of two former playground addicts.

For descriptions of outstanding playgrounds in Pierce, Thurston and Kitsap Counties, turn to the Web site of our sister publication, Puget Sound Parent. Go to www.pugetsoundparent.com and click on “Destination PLAY!” in the June issue.

Help Build a New Neighborhood
Playground in Kirkland

Friends of the Woodlands Playfield in Kirkland’s Rose Hill neighborhood want to know what you’re doing June 14-18.

Organizers of an ambitious project to create a new playground at 124th Avenue and 97th Street are inviting 300 neighbors to join them during Build Week.

Last summer the architects of Leathers and Associates, who designed the community playground at St. Edward State Park, brainstormed ideas with 600 K-6 neighborhood children. The children asked for themed climbing structures with castle, tree fort and rocket shapes, a walk-up chess area, a tot lot and tire swings. One child wanted a trampoline, and that idea was incorporated into a trampoline bridge. Another wanted a water slide, and was persuaded that the new playground would have a water slide every time it rained. Most children said it was important that everyone can use the playground, and so wheelchair ramps are being installed.

Residents can sign up for one or more four-hour shifts by calling Kevin Miller at 425-891-9596 or registering online at www.playgroundproject.org. Construction supervisors will be on site to assign and oversee tasks, and childcare is available for children ages 4 -10. Children ages 10 - 14 can work with a guardian and those 14 and older can come without a parent. An opening celebration with free food and helium balloons is scheduled for Father’s Day, Sunday, June 18 at 5 p.m.

As of press time, community organizers, individuals and local businesses had raised $106,000 of the $125,000 budget. Community members are invited to buy a picket in the fence with their child’s name on it for $30 – perhaps as a Father’s Day gift.

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