Sometimes kids just need a safe place to run around. (And sometimes parents just need kids to have a safe place to run around.) When you're a little one, it's hard to beat a day climbing through a castle or racing down a slide. Lucky for us, there are plenty of places around the region to do exactly that. Below, we've organized our picks for a fun day outside by location.
Read more: Brentwood is getting a destination playground this fall. See renderings here.
St. Louis (City)
Courtesy of Forest Park Forever
Forest Park's Anne O’C. Albrecht Nature Playscape & Dennis & Judith Jones Variety Wonderland Playground
Unlike traditional playgrounds, the Nature Playscape—a 17-acre natural playscape smack in the middle of Forest Park—features no metal equipment, just huge sandy areas for digging, logs to balance on, boulders to climb, and fun water features. The playscape is surrounded by gardens and boardwalks and is a great place to get hands on with nature. It’s located behind the World’s Fair Pavilion where there’s lots of street parking and plenty of bike racks. Elsewhere in Forest Park, located just outside the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor and Education Center, the Dennis & Judith Jones Variety Wonderland Playground is fully accessible to children of all abilities and features sensory panels and a merry-go-round that can accommodate children who use wheelchairs.
Fox Park Playground
In the summer, kids crave water. If you don’t want to pay for a pool pass, the spray ground in Fox Park is a free alternative. The splash pad has fountains, sprayers, and jets. The most popular is a suspended diamond-shaped bucket. It fills slowly, building suspense. Kids stand below, giggling nervously until the bucket tips, dousing them in a wall of water.
Located in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood, Francis Park is beloved by kids for its bright-colored playground, bouncy animal-shaped ride-on toys, picnic spots, and soccer field. Parents love it because steps away from the playground is Rockwell Beer Garden.
The swirly slide at this city park is aces—we really wish there were an equivalent for adults. For smaller kids, the other side of the playground features more gentle, closer-to-the-ground slides, a wobbly bridge, and swings. After you finish up there, head to the Victorian walking park and pond and watch the swans elegantly glide through the water.
Created by legendary City Museum founder Bob Cassilly, this southern slice of Forest Park features several concrete turtles, ranging from 7 to 40 feet in length. The space was renovated in 2021 to include separate play areas, including one catered to children ages 2 to 5 that features activity panels for counting and vocabulary development. There's also a play space for kids ages 5 to 12.
Mid St. Louis County
Shaw Park Playground
The fenced playground near Shaw Park’s north parking lot has a treehouse theme, complete with a slide that appears to be made from a hollow log. Ramps make structures accessible. There’s a music area where kids can play xylophones. It’s the perfect place to pretend that you’re one of Peter Pan’s Lost Boys (or Girls).
This playground is home to a challenging set of monkey bars. There are three distinct sections. In one, kids swing between metal triangles. In the next, they climb across a suspended spiral, and in the third, they dangle from wheels. It’s an ideal training ground for mini American Ninja Warriors.
North St. Louis County
Angie’s Playground at Manion Park
Angie’s Playground is North County’s first-ever all-inclusive playground, with a cute flower theme, plenty of ramps, and—a great feature for young families—new bathrooms.
With two playgrounds and a fountain for fishing, Bella Fontaine Park is a little gem in the Bellefontaine Neighbors area.
This large park in Florissant has an orange-and-red playground with plenty of slide options, a climbing wall, a balance beam, and monkey bars, but the real draw here is the shaded splash pad with pop jets and a giant dumping bucket. For older kids, you’ll also find a sand volleyball court and an archery range.
South St. Louis County
The playground design at this Valley Park destination mimics one of the pavilions at Tower Grove Park with its green-and-red color scheme and cute sloping roof. The real draw are its three fast slides. Also in the park, find a field for flying model airplanes and drones.
If you want a farm animal experience without having to pay a cent, head to Suson Park, which houses giant pigs, goats, horses in mini and regular sizes, sheep, geese, turkeys, ducks, chickens, and more. Elsewhere in the park, there’s a playground with a big swirly slide and climbing wall, and a pond for fishing.
Watson Trail Park | Photography courtesy Sunset Hills
Watson Trail Park
Whitey Herzog and Rainbows for Kids teamed up for a major overhaul of this Sunset Hills park. The result is a truly ADA-accessible playground with a swing and merry-go-round that can be ridden while in a wheelchair. The park includes a variety of swings, metal and plastic slides, challenging climbers, and musical play areas.
West St. Louis County
Yes, the big draw to this park is the 320-acre lake with beach area and sailboat cove. But don’t miss the three playgrounds in the Upper Creve Coeur area, one of which is right next to Go Ape Zipline and Adventure Park.
Known for its classic carousel and the Butterfly House, Faust Park is also home to a wonderful playground. It boasts a large undulating climbing wall for older kids, with a shorter section for littler tykes. It’s a free, outdoor, kid-sized version of a rock-climbing gym.
Little kids will like the voyager-themed playground at this Wildwood park; bigger kids will get a thrill from its challenge course and alpine climbing tower. This park also features a number of different campsites if you’d like to introduce your tot to tent camping.
One of the best spiral tube slides around can be found at Millennium Park. Kids climb up a set of steps, crawl through a gray tube, then up through an orange one to the top platform. The slide is blue, which makes it pretty dark inside. It’s thrilling without being too scary—though the tubes on the way up are narrow enough to prevent all but the thinnest parents from accompanying a nervous youngster on the ride. Millennium Park also has an excellent teeter-totter, with thick shocks for softer landings.
This unique playground has a massive tiered pyramid that looks like something the ancient Aztecs might have built. Tunnels and slides lead between and through the levels. Like Super Mario, kids descend through a pipe for an underground adventure. Although this isn’t the area’s most accessible playground, it might be the most fun.
St. Charles County
Installed in late 2021, Broemmelsiek’s newest playground has all the good stuff: ramps, slides, swings, towers, bridges, a teeter totter, and more. The playground is covered in cushioned turf and has shaded benches.
Trike around the paved trail at this lakeside playground, say hi to one of Bob Cassilly’s many wandering frogs, then climb to the top of a new three-story modern play palace. The playground here underwent a major overhaul in 2021 and is now 13,000 square-feet of accessible fun on a cushy, astroturf pad.
O'Day Park | Photography Courtesy O'Fallon Parks
O'Day Park
Ready for adventure? O’Day was built with older kids in mind, incorporating lots of challenging climbing areas, a full rope course, and group swings. Parents of little ones need to stay alert around the naturescape water features, which are made of slippery-when-wet concrete. Bring grippy water shoes for good traction.
Photography via Flickr//Veterans Tribute Park
This playground meanders around a hillside and is scattered with equipment for all abilities. Be sure to check out the shady and elevated boardwalk: Kids can skip across the wooden path, then launch down a slide to explore the rest of the playground. The music area has a big set of chimes that are really fun to bang on, too.
Zachary's Playground
Zachary's Playground at Hawk Ridge Park
Located in Lake Saint Louis, Zachary’s Playground is worth the trip. There’s an “octa-net climber,” a web of red ropes tied between blue poles that’s the next best thing to climbing a tree. The castle-themed playset has a variety of slides and climbing structures, including stairs, ropes, ramps, and rocky cliffs. A nearby ship has a popular roller slide, and a large “sway fun” toy is like a cross between a restaurant booth and a teeter-totter. With several play structures specifically designed to accommodate wheelchairs, this is not only one of the region’s best playgrounds but also one of its most accessible.
Metro East
The “Airplane Playground” at this larger Edwardsville Park is an aviation lover’s dream with plenty of propellers, slides, places to climb, and shaded areas to sit for Mom and Dad. Nearby is the ADA-compliant Mabel’s Playground, with a slide, climbing wall, and climbing poles, where kids of all abilities can play side by side.
Check out this cute timber-themed playground with five different slides on 90 acres in Fairview Heights.
Swansea Kingdom at Schranz Memorial Park
The builders of this Metro East playground took the castle theme seriously. There are several towers to climb, where your child can pretend to be a princess, or perhaps Rapunzel, and there are several dragon paintings for young knights to tame. For imaginative lords and ladies, this is fertile ground.
