Sunridge Park is a fairly new park in the new development area near Grant Line Road and Douglas Blvd, so it’s fairly easy to get to from Folsom. The park is worth a visit, especially during the summer when the water features are turned on. It has a lot of universally accessible and unique features without being boring. There is something for everyone here, except perhaps copious amounts of shade, which is in large part because the park is so new that shade trees have not had time to mature.
McKinley park is in Sacramento, but it’s right off the freeway and such a cool park with unique play equipment making it worth the 25 minute drive. It’s convenient location just off the freeway also makes a great “stopping over” point to break up the drive to Ikea, the airport, or other out of town destinations. In the spring the trees overlooking the duck pond next to the playground are covered in beautiful pink blossoms.
For a long time McKinley park used to have quite a resemblance to Castle Park. Then in 2012, a third of the playground burned down due to arson. The community rallied support to rebuild the playground, and a year later, completely demoed the old playground and rebuilt it from the ground up with a huge volunteer labor force. The new playground still has a similar architecture, but built out of splinter-free synthetic materials that look (for the most part) like wood, featuring design elements suggested by the community, resulting in a very unique fun playground, up to date on all the latest safety and accessibility standards.
The play area overlooks a scenic duck pond. Signs say you aren’t supposed to feed the ducks though, as human food is basically junk food for ducks. The play area is fenced around all but the entrance/exit points, so kids are unlikely to accidentally run into the pond (though outside the play area on the walking trails, watch out for goose poop!). The turf in the play area is a mix of woodchips, with wheelchair/stroller friendly rubber turf trails running through the park.
The toddler play structure is closest to the entrance and has a train theme on the side of it, and has long ramps great for exploring. There are rockers ranging from single person rockers all the way up to a four-person spring-loaded teeter totter. The play structure was very engaging and my 2 year old was content to play there for quite some time before i tried to pry him away from that to explore the rest of the playground.
One of the play features that is perhaps most unique at this park is it has a large merry-go-round. Not quite the same as the ones I remember from childhood, but closer to it than any other playground I’ve yet been to in the area, it has room for quite a few kids at once and has spider-nets as well as individual spinning “cages” for passengers to ride on. It’s quite heavy to push, which makes it a little slower than the old fashioned kind (as I think it has to be to meet modern playground safety codes), but still completely delighted my kids, who had never seen more than a spinning seat play feature at other playgrounds.
There is also a sand-pit that is quite well-contained.
And an outer-space themed rock-climbing wall.
Big play structure, with ADA ramps affording my toddler easy access to the slides.
Toddler and Accessible Swings:
Picnic Area:
More pictures:
The park does not have a dedicated parking lot. There is, however, free street parking all around the park. When we went, mid-morning on a weekday, we were able to park right out in front, but at busy times there may be more walking involved to get from parking spot to the play structure.
A few weeks ago, after a trip to the Douglas Blvd. Party City in Roseville to get some party supplies (that location is much larger than the one in Folsom) we decided to check out the nearby Maidu Regional Park, which is only a few blocks away. Maidu is the name of the native tribe that once lived in this area.
Maidu Park includes a Roseville branch library, community center, sports complex, skate park, and of course, a playground. This playground is definitely distinctive–it has an old western theme that is much more in depth than the Folsom City Lions Park as well as a lot of universally accessible features, as well as a couple not-so-universally-accessible features.
Our toddler playgroup went to CSD Park this week to check out the new rubber turf in the toddler play area. It’s really springy! But they did replace the sand play area with additional rubber turf. Apparently the sand required too much maintenance and was getting into too many places (like drains) that it shouldn’t.
This is a great first park for toddlers, especially with the large shade canopies and additional tree shade.
BT Collins is pretty un-assuming from the street. It doesn’t have any shaded parking or even a dedicated parking lot. But it has a great amount of shade and is a tranquil oak-tree filled space once you walk up the small hill to the play structures (though if you forget something in the car and go back for it, the hill will suddenly seem a lot longer than it did the first time up…so check your diaper bag before you leave your car!). There are paved paths to the play structures for strollers. The toddler and big kid play structures are separated by more hillside, and if you keep hiking up the hillside from there you will find two hidden sand-volleyball courts just before the water tower and hiking trails.
Though the park is hilly overall, this park has a lot of space to run around without worrying about kids running in the street, and is surrounded by a lot of natural landscape that is hard to find in the middle of town available for public access (though watch out for rattlesnakes! they are native to Folsom). Continue reading B.T. Collins Park in Folsom
