Loyola Park

We first visited this park back in 2015, when it quickly went on our “Favourite Parks” list. 

Since then, there’s been a bit of a change, in that the entire playground was moved to the middle of the park, and artificial turf soccer fields were put in its place. 
While all the equipment is the same (including the cute blue and red retro fencing), the layout is a bit different, and there are NO trees anymore, no gardens, hardly any benches, and ZERO shade.

While we still thought all the playground equipment was great, and the boys loved the ropes, and cables, and different activities, I was pretty disappointed that it lost a lot of its charm, and will be basically unusable on hot summer days due to the absence of shade. (Especially for the local daycares.)

The playground still has two sections, with the toddler area totally fenced but a large opening, and the big-kid area totally open to the rest of the park. 
There is LOTS to do in both and tons of space.

The toddler section features climbers by GameTime and is new from 2012. There are stairs, leaf steps, a crawl tunnel, rock climbing wall, balance beam, a “wooden” stump, slides, mushrooms(!), a wall panel featuring North American animals that’s supposed to make sounds (but didn’t 🙁 ), and just all sorts of things all over the place. Really creative and good for all as you could play in a little area, make it into an obstacle course, or just do the small steps and mini slide. Yup, fun. 
The rest of this biiiig toddler section has some spinning seats, a spinning turtle, baby AND big swings, a double ride-on dinosaur, and the Wee Planet Climber.

Just a step away, and within perfect sight is the section for older kids. There’s a spider web climber AND a horizontal rope climber hovering off the ground. My 11-year old tried out the wobbly stand-up board and the XccentPlay X-Wave. “You sit there and we’ll see how high I can make you fly!”
There are a whole bunch of big swings, and a couple of stand-up spinners. 
THEN, there is the elaborate climber from Little Tikes. There is just about every kind of ladder imaginable, plastic stepping stones and big rings, a chain bridge, slides, the Perch Alley, rock climbing wall, infinity climber, the Hoop-La Freestanding structure with right to climb over and through, and more. Great for older kids, nd super challenging for little ones. 

After walking through the little garden near the baseball field, we saw a splash pad by Pointe-Claire based Vortex in the distance (on Avenue Doherty). Hooray!
The spray is gentle, there are no dumping buckets, and it’s nicely spread out so kids aren’t always in the water. The magic button is on a post (you can hear my little one beep-beeping it in the video.)
There are water cannons, tall sprayers, a ship’s bow, ground jets and a fish and snail to aim and shoot. 
It is almost fully fenced but has an opening on one side near the picnic tables/drinking fountain, ping-pong tables, and bike racks. If it had a gate it would be perfect. There’s a little bit of shade around the edges over the benches and under the roof covering the table tennis/ping-pong table. There was a bit of a kerfuffle here as the splash pad surface when we visited wasn’t painted, then it was, then there were complaints it was too slippery, and now the paint has been scrubbed off. The video below is from our first visit in 2015!

So…while we still love the playground equipment, the complete lack of trees and shade, and the changes made take this off our favourites List. 

Things to note:
-The splash pad is on from mid-June to the end of September, from 8am-9pm. You can read about the hours HERE.
-The chalet is *supposed* to open daily mid-June to the end of September from 9am-9pm. There are drinking fountains inside, as well as outside the chalet.
-We were able to find street parking right in front on Somerled, but watch for the signs!
-You can find outdoor fitness equipment near the corner of Fielding and Coronation. It’s minimal. 

Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce – Loyola Park from StrollerMom on Vimeo.

This video is about Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce – Loyola Park

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