Cut to the chase, Take me to the Momsense.
I don’t know who loves a new playground more: me or my kids. Maybe it’s the influence of 6+ years of blogging about things to do with kids, but I get positively giddy when someone mentions a new or refurbished playscape! And that’s exactly how it was when I saw a comment on our Facebook page (thanks, Sarah B.!) about the new playground at Charter Oak Park in Manchester!
Unfortunately, it was several weeks before the weather actually cooperated enough for us to pay this new destination a visit. But last Saturday, overjoyed by the abundance of sunshine (wait, sun? what’s that?), we couldn’t resist a trip to check out this reader-recommended spot!
The park is convenient to many neighboring towns. It is located right off 384, although coming from Glastonbury we took Manchester Road.
Source: Google Maps
Happily, this park is also quite close to another one of our favorite venues: The Lutz Children’s Museum! So if you’re looking to extended a museum morning with a playground picnic, you can easily make this outing a twofer!
Source: Google Maps
Source: Google Maps
The playground can be accessed off Charter Oak Street. The entrance is directly across from Spruce Street, and there’s good signage so you’ll have no trouble finding it.
Source: Google Maps
There is a huge parking area. This is only one part of it!
The playground will be on your right after you enter, so you may want to try that area of the parking lot first.
As far as I can tell from my obsessive googling research, this park underwent significant renovations and reopened last summer with a lot of new features including, of course, this wonderful new playscape!
As you will see, we were not the only ones suffering from a serious case of “the sun is out and we need to leave this house right now” fever that day 🙂 As we pulled into the parking lot the playscape was so covered in kids that I could barely see it! Haha!
Although the playground isn’t fenced-in, there are these guard rails along the sides that border the parking lot. It’s nice to have some sort of barrier between kids and cars 🙂
The boys made a beeline for the centrally located rope structure. That was definitely a hit!
But of course, with so many things to explore, they didn’t stay in any one place too long 🙂
This zip line was a nice feature! It reminded me of the fun one we found last fall when we visited the new Jonathan’s Dream Playground in West Hartford.
Adjacent to the large playground is a smaller, toddler playground.
The two playgrounds aren’t separated by any fencing or barriers, which is nice if you have kids of multiple ages since you have easy access to both structures. Of course, you also get some of the older kids trickling into the small playscape that way. That spinning boat thing in the foreground was very popular with tots and not-tots alike!
There were baby swings nearby as well (and big kid swings in another area of the playground). And plenty of benches!
Now don’t get me wrong, this playground area is amazing. So many different activities expertly woven into a not-so-big space (they made every inch count!). And major bonus points for the softest, springiest synthetic surface I’ve encountered yet! Definitely a great safety feature!
But there are a few other aspects of this park that really make it worth the visit! For one thing, the Rotary Club of Manchester donated what might just be the loveliest music garden I have seen in all my 6+ years of blogging about playgrounds. It’s separated from the playground by a small picnic area with a couple of tables.
This thing is truly a gem with probably a dozen different music-making features, garden beds and lots of bench seating.
To sit in the middle and listen to the kids (and some grownups!) playing those harmonious tones is pretty magical.
The park also has an expansive green space perfect for picnics and frisbees and just plain frolicking.
But the most fascinating thing I discovered here (and maybe this isn’t news to anyone else), is this section of something called the East Coast Greenway. Have you heard about this?
It’s “the nation’s longest connected biking and walking route” and it runs from Maine to Florida! Here’s a look at the section that runs through Connecticut. Turns out it includes several trails in other part of the state that we have scouted before like the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail and the Air Line Trail. Here’s the snippet of trail that runs through Charter Oak Park.
Source: Greenway.org
You can walk straight to East Hartford! Check out this map of the trail in Manchester.
For today, I just took a little stroll around the park and looked longingly around this bend before turning back to find my family.
What a great outing if you’ve got kids who like to ride in strollers though. Get yourself some exercise and then reward them for accompanying you on your walk with some playground playtime! Or ride your bikes together and then relax while the kids hang out on the playscape. We love parks with features that appeal to both kids and grownups. It’s the ultimate in multi-tasking 🙂
Charter Oak Park also has basketball courts and tennis courts.
There are also real restrooms just across the parking lot from the playground, including a family restroom big enough to fit a stroller (unfortunately, I did not get a chance to peek inside and check for a changing table because the park was so busy that day, but I did see one mom take her stroller in there, so we know that part works!).
Even though last Saturday started out lovely, by the late afternoon the wind was picking up and the temps were dropping and it soon became clear that shorts and t-shirts were not going to cut it out here anymore (brrrrr), so we headed home.
But we’ll be back! (You know, if spring ever gets here.)
Charter Oak Park
56 Charter Oak Street, Manchester, Connecticut
(This is the address I found; it doesn’t look like it’s exactly where the entrance is located, but just look for Spruce Street and then turn the other way into the park.)
Hours:
Dawn to dusk (I think)
Pricing:
FREE!
Details:
Stroller Friendly: YES
Coffee Mug Friendly: YES
Restroom: YES
Baby Changing Station: I don’t know, unfortunately as I was not able to peek into the family/handicap restroom (no changing station in the regular restroom). But there is a family restroom! So that’s a plus.
Parking: YES
Food for Sale: NO
Outside Food Allowed: YES
Cash Required: NO
Age Recommendations: ALL AGES
Dress Code: Note that the playground is in full sun, so hats and plenty of sunscreen will be useful in the heat of summer.
Evening/Weekend Hours: YES
Discounts: N/A
Birthday Party Venue: Sure! Why not! 🙂
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