136 Cumberland Ave, Portland, ME 04101

Following GPS will take you down a side street and the park is hidden away so you might go right past it like I did. I circled back around and stayed on Cumberland Ave and saw the park from the road. It is downtown so parking is street and could be frustrating to find a spot. Today I got lucky with a spot right on front of the park. There is some shade and one bench for parents to sit on or there are some pretty sizeable logs to take a seat on.

The first structure is for small toddlers or children whip aren’t as risky with playgrounds. There’s steps up to a small double slide. Another way up to the slide is by climbing a concrete Boulder with lots of different hand and feet spots to hold on to. Across from the double slide is a pretend wheel with knobs for shifting gears. Below is a circle cut out for kids to climb through and a little ledge type thing for pretend store, bakery or restaurant. The only thing served is woodchips, leaves and sticks, so be wary of that ;).

There is a bigger structure with lots of ways up and down. The easiest way is a set of steps. Parents can easily fit up on this structure should they find themselves needing to follow their kids around. Another way up is the big rock wall or a vertical spiderweb that has a five step ladder to use to get to the web. The web is fairly tall. If your kid goes to the very top there is a slight risk of falling if they lean over to much. With that said there is a bar at the top kids can use for support. The web starts of wide at the top and narrows as kids move downward toward the ground. Next to the web is yet another way to climb up and it’s a flat rock wall, meaning the rocks are flattened instead of typical 3-d rock wall. It has three steps with three rocks on each and a chain down the middle for extra needed help. The steps lead directly to swinging handle bars. If you skip the bars, you’ll come to a opening to the flat wall and opposite of the opening is two steering wheels, no knobs but there’s some things cutout that resemble a dashboard. If your kid chose to take the big rock wall or spider web up to the top they’ll come directly to a steep double slide. I went up with my kids to do this and even I was intimidated at first but I did it a couple times and it’s not that bad after the first time down but it can be fast for little ones who can’t quite control the speed.

There are a few various stand alone pieces of equipment and a cute little path that just circles the playground but it can easily be used as another way of playing. My kids pretended to be sonic and tails and run as fast as they could around it. The stand alone equipment was also a big hit with my 18m and 4y. There’s a small rocking seesaw thing. I fit on this just fine and was able to spring us back and forth. There is a set of adorable mushrooms for sitting, climbing or balancing from one to another. Various size rocks and logs are scattered around the playground for some good balance and climbing practice. There is a swingset with one bucket swing and one regular swing. The bread winner for my kids, although I protested against it and lost the battle, was a sprinkler splash pad. It’s one tall pole with a button to press to activate the water. The water sprays in an umbrella form for about 15 seconds unless being held consistently. The drain doesn’t seem to work well so lots of water collects into muddy puddles.

This playground is mostly fenced in and is spaced out nicely. I like the various things to do and I’m sure during the summer it can get busy with the sprinkler being a main attraction. It is plenty shaded and there are places for parents to sit, whether it’s one of the natural logs or the one bench provided. It doesn’t have a bathroom and parking could be tricky on a busy day. I went in the morning on a school day so I was pretty lucky to have snag the parking spot I did. If you don’t park on Cumberland Ave and you follow the GPS directions, there is street parking there too and a small path that leads into the playground. I recommend this play ground for all ages. My kids used both the toddler structure and the bigger structure with no issues regarding their size. Of course my 18m couldn’t do anything more than the steps but he was fine with that! My 4y who typically doesn’t do slides all that much was all over the steep double slide, especially when I was with her. This playground is definitely worth checking out and definitely definitely worth checking out in the summer as a means to cool off!