Aparkolypse 2015: Maple Mini Park

Image courtesy of City of Lynnwood

In our discover tour of parks this summer, we discovered these municipalities' love of combining utilities/infrastructure areas with a park. Maple Mini Park is probably the most flagrant example of this: it's pretty much a backyard playset with major drainage. We bet you can't wait to take your kids on down to the "stormwater detention facility"! The official site indicates that the area is maintained by the Public Works department (and therefore not Parks and Recreation), which is a bad omen.

Getting There

For what it's worth, Google Maps doesn't recognize this as an actual park. There are places to park along Maple Road, but we recommend looping around to 179th Pl SW and parking in the cul-de-sac. At the corner of Maple Rd and 42nd Pl W, you'll see this inviting sign: 

It just screams, "Children, come play here!"

Amenities/Facilities

Does a drainage ditch count as an amenity? There is a bench and a picnic table, neither of which exactly impress. The picture at the top of this post does not lie: there has definitely not been any development since 2000.

Play Area

We're certain this is the same setup as built in 1989, during Lynnwood's apparent "ugly wood, beige, and awful blue" phase (see also Pioneer Park). You and your children may well enjoy the kitty litter play surface. There's a little bit of field to run around in, assuming you keep one eye on the ditch.

 

Review

Do we need to even write this section? We hope Maple Mini serves better as a stormwater detention facility than it does as a park. Unless you live on this cul-de-sac, we recommend you instead go to one of the half-dozen much better Lynnwood parks which are within a five minute drive.

Aparkolypse 2015: Stadler Ridge Park

Photo by City of Lynnwood

If you were to get bored at Stadler Ridge Park, you could drive the two minutes north to Spruce Park, or two minutes south to Pioneer Park, or six minutes over to Alderwood Mall (also a single-minute drive to Wilcox Park, North Lynnwood Park, and a few others). But chances are you and your small group would be too busy enjoying the relative peace and quiet, the unique play experience, and the natural setting in this small and distinctive park.

At the park you can read about the illustrious logging history of Alderwood Manor and the Stadler family who were among the primary settlers (and current residents) but there are better things to do with your time here. Stadler Ridge incorporates many elements of current park design, including the mixture of landscaping/non-landscaping, a walking trail, wood-looking artificial picnic tables, and themed play structures.

Amenities

There are 4-5 large parking spaces marked off on the side of the road, including a handicap permit spot. We don't recommend hosting your family reunion or church picnic here. There aren't any bathrooms/Sanicans or plumbing of any kind. We also recommend shooting accurately at the basketball hoop (with the behated backboard design); errant shots may roll downhill into some very prickly weeds. We decided to stick to dribbling practice and layups.

As is standard for the parks of our tour, there is a walking trail around the park, though the rocky and hilly parts make it stroller-unfriendly. The park's official website describes a walking trail of ".2 mi" and a "nature trail" (maybe the wooded part?) of ".14 mi", so those of you planning to hike the Pacific Crest Trail might find a more suitable training ground elsewhere.

A reminder that the beach shelters on Lost were built by set designers, not regular people

Play

The coolest aspect of the park is the three tiered slides going from the top of the hill down to the main play area.

There is a fairly wide play/picnic field with a handful of benches along the path around it, but steep slopes on the side make for somewhat perilous play. When we were there this summer, there were a ton of bees buzzing about the clover (or whatever flying/stinging/buzzing insects that we're too poor of a naturalist to identify), so we had to steer clear of them.

In putting together this post, we realized that we hadn't taken any close-up pictures of the play structure (the kids weren't interested in it that day), so we've borrowed these two images from Kaboom.org:

Review

We spent a few hours here and had a great time. The basketball hoop setup is ill thought-out and feels tacked on. None of the park is really all that friendly to toddlers and small kids - the main play structure and the climb to get up to the slides require a lot of work, and the slope around the edge of the play field are a real tumbling/toy rolling away hazard. For the kids older than that, it's a fun place to be active. Visually, it's a satisfying blend of the natural and man-made, immaculate, and really cool to see those slides down the slope of the hill. Lynnwood has made good use of a few hilly lots and transformed them into a beautiful and fun refuge. 

Aparkolypse 2015: Willis Tucker Park

There is so much to do at civic megafacility Willis Tucker Park that we're getting winded just blogging about it. Tucked away deep in suburbia, Willis Tucker is a destination worthy of consuming an afternoon or even longer with your family and canine companions.

Amenities/Facilities

We'll attempt to hit the highlights of the options available, but we'll strongly recommend you go to the official website for updates on events which are plentiful.

Picnic Shelters

Several picnic shelters are available for reservation, though only one has access to water and power. The various types of shelters are reserved by several different means for the convenience of the user.

Sports Fields

We're not impressed with half-court hoop area with no fencing, but at least they have one. Two nice baseball/softball fields are also available for reservation via yet another process.

Amphitheater

You can also reserve the amphitheater where the county hosts its summertime Movies at the Park series. The official site suggests that the field seats 1200. It's also fun for your children to pretend they're putting on their own concert or production and useful to have a lunch that's a little quieter and protected from the elements somewhat.

Spray Park

It's hard to express how great these spray parks are for the parents of non-swimming children. There are occasional malfunction issues (i.e. no water is spraying) and water doesn't continuously come out of all of the devices, which creates crowding and jostling.

Miscellaneous

Willis Tucker Park, named after Snohomish County's first county executive, serves as the headquarters for the county's parks department. We're just going to barely mention the rentable activity center and conference rooms or the off-leash dog area. We recommend a look at the park map to get a feel for where the walking trails and other offerings are relative to each other. Bathrooms and outdoor showering off facilities are right next to the play area and the spray park, and more bathrooms are available in the administration building. Along the walking trails, we also found a structure presumably not built by construction crews, and is pictured below.

Play Area

The prominent feature of the play area is this climbing structure where children can enjoy learning the thrill of rope burn. Also available are swing/tot swings, rocking toys, merry-go-round, a large sandbox, and seesaws.

Review

Nitpicking first: the play area is slightly underwhelming. It would be nice to have some slides and areas for littler kids to climb. This place is too well-maintained, too versatile, too pretty and too useful to get hung up on those details. Willis Tucker is a great place for events from family-size to huge, and it's a great place to just show up and hang out.