667 Morse Rd, New Gloucester, ME 04260
Being a school it is easy to find and the playground is around the bend once you pull into the lot. Parking was easy for us only because the only time you can come to this playground is after school hours or weekends, so the lot was fairly empty. There is seating but not much shade on the main playground and like most playgrounds, especially school playgrounds, there are no bathrooms.
There are a lot of stand alone pieces of equipment. Off to the side of the parking lot, quite a ways from the actual playground are two tire swings, which we didn’t notice until we were leaving. There is a jumping pole, kids stand on it, hold the handles and jump. Both my kids love these things whenever a playground has one. It took some convincing to get my 18m to try something else. We did have to bounce him ourselves since he isn’t all that big but my 4y can do it herself. Another stand alone equipment is a standing spinning thing, where kids spin using their body weight or like my kids needed, parents can spin them. A bigger stand alone structure is a set of swinging circular monkey bars. To get to them you climb up a small figure eight ladder or a three step vertical ladder. The bars go in a circle, with the ladder being in the middle, I think there’s ten circular bars in total. Nearby is a handle bar which kids can hold on to and ride down to bounce off the end and return back to the beginning enough if they have enough momentum. The biggest stand alone structure is BIG. I climbed up and phew…looking down made me queasy. To get up to the top, you can use the ladder or two giant rock walls. There isn’t anything to do at the top but to look around or climb down a different way than how you came up.
The main sturcture is suitable for most ages, neither my 4y or 18m had much trouble, my son needed a little extra support on the ladder but once he was up, he had no problems moving about. There’s also space for an adult to climb up and walk behind younger kids. Aside from the ladder, kids can get up on another type of ladder I’ve never seen before. It’s a twisty circular thing, it actually looked like a DNA stand to me. Anyway it was intimidating to my 4y at first but she kept coming back to it and eventually figured it out and got to the top. Whatever way you take will lead you to a double slide, a fire pole and a triple slide with different textures and curves. I fit down both and I’m a pretty big adult, 5’11 and hips that are a mile wide so I was able to race my kids down the slide which they really enjoyed.
Behind this playground area and a small walk is another smaller play area. I’m assuming it’s meant for younger kids, as there isn’t much to do over here but my kids favorite piece of equipment was here so we spent most of our time in this area. It is partially shaded and no seating, unlike the main bigger area. Here at the smaller area is a small slide with a few steps leading up to it. Next to it is a piece of equipment that is part climbing, part sliding and part tunnel. There are small built in climbing rocks and at the top is where you slide down a small slide. It doesn’t look like a slide and maybe it’s not but that’s how my kids used it. There is another standing spinning thing here, except this one is tilted so kids easily can spin too fast and fall off. I stood close by as my 18m did this and although he was laughing hysterically he was close to falling every time. My kids favorite thing was the merry-go-round. It has several seats for kids to sit back and get as dizzy as they’re guardian will spin them. It is wobbly so we had our kids sit on opposite sides. I also tried this and nope never again, I don’t know how kids enjoy this. There is a swing set here as well as near the big playground. Neither swing set has anything but regular swings that are fairly low to the ground.
This playground isn’t great for toddlers but it isn’t the worst, they’ll just need a little extra help getting up on some of the things. It is great for kids between 4-7 I’d guess. If you have kids with age differences this place is okay catering that but if you have only one kid and he’s a toddler I’d say skip this one and just hit Pineland farms which is right across the street. I wish everything was a bit closer in space to each other but thats a very minor gripe to pick. Looking for an hour or so to spend, this place will suffice but it isn’t anything to go out of your way for. If you live within 15m like I do, then check it out when you’ve got nothing else to do on a weekend.
little Movers Maine 