Park Review- Burnsville Lions Playground at Cliff Fen Park

Address-120 Cliff Rd E, Burnsville, MN 55337

We were running errands in Eagan, when I decided to see if I could find the new playground off of Cliff by Hwy 35.  That Hwy 35 ended up being highway 35W, not 35E so it was a little further away than I originally thought, but it was well worth the drive. Driving through an industrial area, close to Blackdog Lake and the Minnesota River,  a beautiful new park with new landscaping popped up on my right.  I almost passed it because the speed limit was pretty fast on that portion of the road.    This park will soon be opening a splash pad at the same park in July of 2015.  It is a good thing they have a very large parking lot.  This will be a destination park once they add the splash pad, the playground is worth visiting now, even without the water area.

This park has a large grass area holding about 6 soccer or football fields.  The sand volleyball courts were on the other side.  There were two port-a-potty’s by the large parking lot and both were clean with hand sanitizer.

As my kids ran for the playground, I explored the nice picnic area, there appeared to be three separate covered structures with picnic tables.  Plenty of space in the shade, if you want to make an afternoon out of visiting the park and pack your lunch. The exciting part was there was electricity and wi-fi in the picnic area.

The playground is wonderful!  The climbing rock wall had multiple sides with different levels of challenge for climbing.  My kids loved the spinning, hanging, monkey bars.  The swings were in great shape and included a handicapped swing.   There was a two level climbing structure to explore with plenty of activities and things to look at. You could hear little kids yelling out Mom, Look!  At all of the different activities to look at and explore. There were  different ways to challenge children to climb across to the next structure.  Many nice slides and plenty of ways to get from one level to the next.

There was a separate structure for little kids next the the big area, with a few sitting toys to bounce on, and a small climbing wall, so they would not be missing out on any of the cool things their big siblings were exploring.

As a parent, I liked the wi-fi, the shaded bench sitting area at the front of the park next to the small fence to keep your kids contained, and the huge parking lot.

The negatives- This park is supposed to accommodate 265 children,  I just don’t ever want to venture that far from home to encounter school groups having taken it over.   It will be really busy when they open the splash pad.  I really hope they add indoor bathrooms for phase two of construction,  and in the hot sun we could have all used a drinking fountain.

The positives-  This is a brand new park.  It had different playground pieces that we had never seen before and plenty of activities for kids to explore.   Don’t forget about the wi-fi!  (But please, watch your kids more than your cell phones.)