Park Review- Rich Valley Complex Park, Inver Grove Heights, MN

Address- 1841 105th St. East, Inver Grove Heights, MN 55077

This park is out at the edge of the city, where you drive through the country area of Inver Grove Heights.  Many people do not know that you can be this close to downtown and have plenty of houses on 2.5-10 acre, wooded lots.  This is a big park with four nice soccer fields, 9 full size baseball fields, and the grass is so great your feet will be itching to walk barefoot in it. A bathroom facility in between the baseball fields and another bathroom facility, with picnic tables, is located by the soccer fields. There is a small pond that separates the playground area from the soccer fields.  A small basketball area at the edge of the parking lot, and a tennis court. A paved walking trail circles and winds throughout the park. At the very south edge of the park is a small, old, white building with boarded up windows, this was the first school house in Inver Grove Heights.

The playground has its own small parking lot with about 10 parking spots, if this lot is full there is ample parking in the large ballfield parking lot, on the other side of the tennis court.  There are multiple slides to explore, plenty of ways to climb up to the top of the main structure, ladders, stairs, ropes, climbing wall, and exciting ways to get down, smooth slides, firepoles, and bumpy slides.

Next to the large, main playground structure is a smaller children’s playground area with low slides, mirrors and small tunnels to climb through. There are a few ride on spring toys and a small four way teeter totter.  This park has plenty of swings,  and the most fun part of the park for kids is the tire swing!  There are is a climbing web,  and spinning monkey bars, a metal zip bar, as well climbing structures to work on arm strength.   The park has cute pods to walk on for balance, and slides of varying heights to keep even the big kids entertained.  The large park has three more fun, spinning rides.

For picnics the park has a covered shelter with 4 picnic tables, and a port a potty for emergencies, if you dont want to walk to the distance to the restrooms. This park was planned well with plenty of mature trees to keep you cool in the hot sun, and many benches for parents to sit around the edge and still see your children at all parts of the park. This is a great park, certainly worth the drive. The only thing that would make it better would be a drinking fountain or bathrooms near the playground.

The negatives- the port-a-potty instead of flush toilets,  it never fails your kids won’t want to leave and will need to use this potty (It always has been clean.)  The main play structure is not for little kids,  there is plenty of ways for your toddler to fall down 2 stories if they are not constantly supervised.  Good thing the little kid area is right next to the big kid area.

The positives- nice, well maintained, big structure with many different activities, the tire swing, and the mature trees to help shade the park.  Don’t forget to walk over by the soccer or ball fields and check out the great grass, seriously, most parks are not this well manicured.

Park Review- Hamlet Park, Cottage Grove, MN

Address-8883 Hamlet Ave S, Cottage Grove, MN 55016

We were out in Cottage Grove and decided to try to find a big city park. We searched the city website and the majority of parks had tiny play structures.  This appeared to be the largest playground equipment available other than their school parks.  It is located on a nice, wooded piece of property that has been well preserved for many years.  Trying to find it was challenging,  we went through a neighborhood, down a few backstreets and kept cutting over to find the entrance to the park in the middle of a neighborhood of 1970 ramblers.  When we pulled in I was pleasantly surprised to find a large park. They have great baseball fields, sand volleyball courts, big tennis courts, a hockey area in the winter and a nice walking paved walking path system.   Considering all of this the parking lot was rather small.

The playground is one of the first things you come up on the left.    The kids liked that there were multiple swings that they could swing really high on. There were some bars to swing on, and a small playground equipment structure with monkey bars, and a few slides and stairs to climb up and down. This was enough to keep my kids entertained for about 20 minutes before we moved on. There was a port a potty next to the park, and an outdoor drinking fountain close to the ball fields.  They have a nice structure for picnics and a well maintained small building for renting with extra picnic tables under a ceiling.  We took a short hike on the paved trails, that were well used by bike riders and pet walkers, w we came around the backside and decided to watch the teenagers practice their skateboarding skills. We did not spy any future Tony Hawks, so we walked back to the car, ready to find our next playground.

The negatives- It was a small playground for such a large park area, there was nothing to challenge my kids into wanting to stay and play.  The positives-  It was very clean and well maintained.

When I go back to Cottage Grove, I am going to check out their new splash pad park.

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is bring the kids to new parks.  Exploring new parks is a cheap way to get exercise, keep playing fun, as well as exploring new neighborhoods and meeting new people.     I discovered that it is really challenging to learn any information about parks other than what is published on city or county websites, so I decided to document my impressions on the places I visit.

Park Review- Community Center Park Inver Grove Heights, MN

Address- 80th St. and Barbara Avenue East, Inver Grove Heights, MN 55077

Inver Grove Heights has some nice, large city parks in comparison to surrounding communities.

The Community Center Park is located next to The Grove Aquatic Center. This park has three different areas for children of all ages.  There is a small children area with toddler swings, a small children climbing structure with slides and low stairs.  There is a little area that my kids used to play house in, there are a few ride on spring toys and there is a sand/gravel digging area.   There is also a bigger kid area with a multi-level climbing structure with 3 tube slides, and one straight slide and a climbing structure in addition to two toys to bounce or spin on. There are flat rock stairs separating the little kid from big kid areas, to help keep your little kids away from the big kid area when they are in the fast, but fearless, toddler age.

When your kids are ready to go onto the tall structure, make sure you warn your children to watch their heads.  There are red structural bars that are the exact level of a 5-year old’s forehead about every 10 stairs.  Every time I am there, I see a poor kid, so excited to climb the stairs to go down the sides, who does not see the bars, and bumps their head.  The good news is they only bump their head once, and never forget the bars are there again. There is spinning platform on pole and one of those bouncy teeter totters that bounces off of the tires. There is also a strange climbing structure that looks more like art than playground equipment, but it is fun for kids who are strong enough to try to climb and slide down.

There is a short wood chipped trail to lead you around the pond or to the skate park on the other side of the building.  There is also a very pretty shaded gazebo area if you are lucky enough to have children that are old enough to play on their own. There is an outdoor drinking fountain and you don’t even need to worry about a stinky, port-a-potty, you can use the clean, indoor bathrooms in the building right next door, inside The Grove, Community Center.

The downfalls,  during the day there may be the school age care program on the playground equipment and watch out for those goofy red support bars.   The positives,  It has awesome 2 and 3 story tube slides, a great area for little kids separate from the big kid area and when your kids are old enough, you can sit and read a book in the shaded gazebo while they play.