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8 Best Coquitlam Playgrounds — In Love With BC
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After covering the best playgrounds in Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Burnaby, now comes Coquitlam. Staying home with a toddler after we moved to Vancouver surely meant that I had time to research and test lots of playgrounds. More than I ever wanted, haha.
While spending hours on playgrounds was much more fun for my son than for me, I learned to appreciate how carefully designed, awesome playgrounds the Metro Vancouver area offers. And Coquitlam has its fair share! Actually, it’s home to quite a few brand new and wonderfully designed playgrounds that truly impressed us. So let me show you the very best playgrounds in Coquitlam in this post.
Which are the best kid-friendly parks in Metro Vancouver?
Summer addition: wading pools and spray parks
In the summer months, spray parks and wading pools can be added to the mix. I’ve never heard of them before, but they are an essential part of the outdoorsy summer fun in Metro Vancouver. So what are they?
Wading pools are shallow concrete tanks of water, heated by the sun. Each wading pool has their own operating hours, and when it’s open, a playground leader is on site who supervises and maintains the pool. As you can guess from their name, wading pools are not suitable for swimming, because they’re too shallow. But that’s exactly the point: small kids can safely splash around and play in the wading pool. (Of course, parental supervision is required.)
Spray parks, also called water parks, include different water features, like sprinklers, splash pads, tipping buckets or water guns. Some are aimed for young toddlers, others are for older kids. The water features can usually be activated by buttons, so they only work when kids are present. But I’ve never seen any of them empty on hot summer days.
There were weeks when we spent half of the day in a wading pool or spray park, and it’s obsessive. Babies and toddlers (and kids of any age) are beyond excited when it comes to water play. These are the places to take them. Oh, and they are free and accessible to anyone, just like public parks and playgrounds. They operate in the summer months only, roughly from mid-June to the end of August.
Best 3 Playgrounds In Coquitlam
Coquitlam’s TOP 3 playgrounds deserve their spot on the list of the best playgrounds in the Lower Mainland. They offer a variety of different play areas, creative and unique play structures and exciting water features. Let’s see them:
Mundy Park playground
The Mundy Park playground is a piece of art! Really, I’ve never seen one that matches it — not only in Metro Vancouver, but anywhere else in the world. It’s huge and offers a variety of play structures, which makes it a heaven for kids of any age.
Mundy Park toddler playground
The toddler playground area has the cutest playhouses, connected by a tunnel and accompanied by a tiny slide. You can play shopping, check the post box, or play-eat toy-pizza.
The various spinners are popular among kids of any age, and there’s an awesome spinning carousel, unlike anything I’ve seen on other playgrounds. But that’s just the beginning. A multi-person seesaw, a variety of swings, different slides and music features can also be found on this playground.
But the biggest hit is the giant wooden climbing structure and treehouse. It has several towers, slides and a rope tunnel, and there are some easier climbing and jumping structures at the bottom. It’s the most suitable for older kids (age 5 and up), but smaller children are safe, too, if they make it to the top.
The surface of the playground is a mix of rubber and wood chips, and large trees give plenty of shade on hot summer days. The spacious shaded picnic area is great for coverage in both rainy and sunny weather, and Mundy Park is home to about 16 kilometers of walking trails, including a lovely loop walk around Mundy Lake.
The only thing missing? There’s no adjoining spray park or wading pool. Even so I wouldn’t say that Mundy Park and its playground don’t offer enough to make a day trip worth it.
Town Center Park playground & spray park
The Town Center Park is one of the best parks in Coquitlam, with walking trails, social spaces, volleyball courts, skate park, tennis courts, free outdoor table tennis and football tables, and a large playground with an adjoining (and also quite large) spray park.
The playground has two main areas, both with wood chips flooring. The small swing area has a belt swing and a baby swing, and it’s well-separated from the rest of the playground. The larger play area has a huge climbing structure that connects several slides, bridges, monkey bars and different structures for balancing skills. There’s also a play ship and a spinning rope pyramid.
The Town Center Park spray park was one of my son’s favorites. It has a large red car with a few smaller sprinklers, then several water guns and more sprinklers. Toddlers will also love the kid-sized sink and the smaller area with a tiny sprinkler that looks like a spring coming under the rocks. It’s a bit further from the water guns and the car, so toddlers and babies can peacefully play in the water while the older kids fight.
Town Center Park water park
If you’re tired of the playground, there’s a lovely, easy walking trail around Lafarge Lake. Town Center Park has the most beautiful colors in October when trees turn golden and red.
Know before you go:
- Parking? several free parking lots (time limit might apply)
- Washrooms? yes
- Picnic tables? yes
- Trails? ~5 km of walking trails (including neighboring Lafarge Lake Park)
- Spray park? yes
- Wading pool? no
- Unique features: ship theme, amazing water park
Blue Mountain Park playground, spray park & wading pool
Blue Mountain Park deserves to be in the TOP 3 because of several reasons: it offers some of the best and most varied climbing and balancing structures, exciting nature themed elements and not only one water park, but two: a wading pool and a spray park!
In addition to the playground and water parks, there’s a lovely forest walking path around the park and along a small stream. There are benches, picnic shelter, sport fields and ping pong tables.
The Blue Mountain playground is large and consists of several play areas, with partly rubber and partly wood chips flooring. There’s a challenging climbing and balancing area for older kids, with a huge rope structure. There’s a swing area with 2 baby swings, 4 belt swings, a saucer swing and an accessible swing. There’s an imaginative horse riding area with two life-sized horse figures.
The toddler play area has a selection of music features, a tiny tunnel and balancing structure and small spinners for the youngest ones. The slide area has two slides, a small tunnel, a climbing rock and other exciting climbing structures. I particularly like the lots of natural play structures, like the climbing rock, the tunnel or the mushroom figures to step on.
The playground is spread out and offers lots of choices. If your kid is bored on the local playgrounds, this could be a special treat.
The circular wading pool is just behind the playground, and the spray park is located a bit further, in the southern area of the park, just off King Albert Avenue. It’s large enough, and the highlight (at least for my son) is the little boat, but there are countless different sprinklers and fountains, too.
Lesser-known, unexpectedly amazing Coquitlam playgrounds
When I decided to highlight the best playgrounds in Coquitlam, I was determined to pick only three, the very best ones. And I did. However, I also feel that this article would be incomplete without a few more. Everything can’t be best, but Coquitlam truly has such a variety of great playgrounds, some of them brand new and quite unique. So let me share a few more of our favorites with you.
Rochester Park playground
If you take your kid to the Rochester Park playground, be prepared to stay for hours. I didn’t expect this, because I thought I already knew the best Coquitlam playgrounds, and this one would surely be cute and fun, but not as impressive as Mundy Park or Blue Mountain Park. Well, I was wrong.
If there wasn’t such an amazing spray park in Town Center Park, I’d have included Rochester Park in the TOP 3 Coquitlam playgrounds instead. This huge park is located on different levels, which are connected by long stairways. There are different play areas well separated and spread out, and a skatepark, walking trails, grassy lawn and social areas, as well.
On the upper level of Rochester Park you find a parking lot just off Rochester Avenue. This level has a swing area with two saucer swings, a zipline, a skatepark, a small sandy toddler playground with a tiny slide and a climbing area with a huge wooden climbing structure and nets, ideal for older kids to improve their climbing, jumping and balancing skills.
The zipline is one of those which are lesser-known, at least I’ve never seen it crowded on a weekday. It’s on a gentle slope and suitable for younger kids, too.
The entrance of the metal tunnel slide is also on this level, and the slide takes you down to one level below where you find a huge grassy lawn. This slide can be intimidating for toddlers, but older kids are obsessed! My son started enjoying it after he turned three.
If you walk further down, you’ll find a huge sandbox and a spray park on the lower level of Rochester Park. This level is ideal for babies and toddlers, because the sandbox is really huge, and there are water features mixed in. The little dams and taps are exciting for little ones and won’t intimidate them. Not like larger sprinklers which you can’t find here. This is the level where you find the washrooms, too. You can use the parking lot just off Casey Avenue to be closer to this area.
I love Rochester Park, because it’s spacious and offers so much for kids of any age. Fall colors are nice in October, but it feels bare in winter.
Como Lake Park playground
Como Lake Park is a small one, but ideal to spend a few hours outdoors in any season. There’s a nice, short (about 1 km) loop trail around Como Lake, grassy lawns, benches, two boat docks and a fenced playgrounds. Oh, and dozens of ducks and Canadian geese.
The playground is on the lakeshore, is fully fenced and has rubber flooring. Both me and my toddler were amazed by the cuteness of the small boat themed play area with a boat dock, a play boat and the miniature Como Lake. But there’s also a tiny playhouse, a few spring riders, several slides with climbing structures, a climbing rock, music features and a selection of swings.
The Como Lake playground is the most enjoyable for toddlers. But some of the climbing structures are challenging enough for older kids, too, especially the climbing wall and rods at the double slide.
There are two parking lots in Como Lake Park, one is in the south and one is in the north end of the park, and both are off Gatensbury Street. The northern one is closer to the playground, and that’s where you find the washrooms, as well.
Queenston Park playground
Queenston Park playground is tucked away in a quiet residential neighborhood, and I think it’s meant to be a quiet residential playground for locals (there’s no dedicated parking lot and no washrooms either). But it’s too cool to be used by locals only.
With a safe and bright rubber flooring and brand new equipment, this playground tempts the older kids. Half of the play structures are located on a steep hillside, which is too challenging for young toddlers, but fun for older kids. They take delight in the giant metal embankment slide and the ladders and ropes on the hillside. My 3-year-old coped with them quite well, too.
There’s also a basketball court and a paved biking path encircling it, and two traditional slides with climbing structures, a small one and a larger one. The small slide is the best for babies and young toddlers, then they can venture to the bigger slide, then to the hill as they grow.
Overall, the playground is impressive, but the park itself couldn’t match any of the other ones mentioned before.
Marguerite Park playground
Marguerite Park is another local gem. Stumbling upon this quiet residential park dressed in golden and red on a crispy, sunny October day makes me a bit biased.
The playground looks brand new, and it has a spacious and creative design. It consists of several well-separated areas: a toddler playground, an area with climbing rocks, a swing area (with one belt swing and one baby swing) and a playground area for older kids.
The toddler playground area has a cute little twin slide, spring riders and simple climbing structures. Babies and young toddlers would enjoy it the most, my 3-year-old was more excited about the larger climbing structures and slides of the main area, particularly the climbing wall and the rope tunnel. There are several cool spinners and music features, too.
I appreciated the nature themed elements, like the leaf-shaped spinner or the climbing rocks. The playground is surrounded by benches, a large grassy lawn, and a short forest trail starts at the back of the park towards Hyde Creek. The only thing we missed: toilets!
Mackin Park playground
Mackin Park is just a few minutes drive from Rochester Park. Two such large parks with so much to offer!
Mackin Park has sport fields, a skatepark, a perimeter walking trail and a playground. Compared to Rochester Park, this playground is more average though. You find the usual climbing structures with slides. Actually, the two slide structures are connected by monkey bars and some balancing structures. The bigger slide has a large climbing wall.
The swing area has two baby swings, two belt swings and a saucer swing, and there are two spring riders. That’s about it — and the surrounding greenery. Mackin Park is home to a small spray park, as well, with a few sprinklers and a relatively big tipping bucket (that terrifies my son).
See the full article where is was originally published: https://inlovewithbc.com on April 20, 2024.