Park Review- Hamlet Park, Cottage Grove, MN

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

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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.

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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.