We all loved the main play structure at this playground. First, it’s huge. Second, out of almost 60 parks that we’ve visited this summer, this is the FIRST park that is wheelchair accessible and actually has activities to do. (Edited, we’ve now seen over 500(!) playgrounds and still only a handful of accessible play structures). It’s pretty sad that there aren’t more so we were very pleased to see it here and have the opportunity to play.
The elaborate climber by Landscape Structures features a long ramp with activity panels along the way. There’s the Marble Panel, the Trail Tracker Reach Panel, tic-tac-toe, a steering wheel, periscope, and musical chimes. Other features include a bridge, small staircase, monkey rings, and all sorts of metal rungs and ladders. Both boys had SO much fun wandering, swinging, touching, and sliding.
The entire play area is on a brightly-coloured poured-in-place rubber base and besides the climber, there’s a giant rope basket spinner, some super modern looking metal climbers (that my guys initially thought were splash pad sprinklers 🙁 ), big-kid swings, as well as one adaptive swing.
The one thing missing here? SHADE. There’s a teensy, tiny bit on the benches on one side, but we should have known how hot it got here because people were leaving by 10am.
Closer to the road is another play area with a structure by Miracle Recreation. This whole section is on sand and has a couple of spring riders, including the adorable ladybug; a sand digger, a small rope spinner, and baby swings. The climber features easy to access stairs, the Tot Rock Climber, slides, a small tunnel, a climbing wall, Honeycomb climber and more. BOTH climbers were great for my six-year old and 20 month old. I LOVE that.
Again, there’s basically no shade over this playground, though there are small trees around the edge of the park.
There’s some green space to run around, but no fencing surrounding the playgrounds, though it is set back from the road and there’s a hill along the East side. Grier Park as a whole is immense with 8 hectares of land and includes tennis courts, basketball, baseball, a hill for winter sledding and even ANOTHER PLAYGROUND on the corner of Rue Amalfi.
I was really impressed with the play area and the boys had a great time. What I’d love to see is more shade somehow, a water fountain near the playground, a bathroom that’s open even when the pool is not, or one that’s closer than the chalet which is miles away from the playground.
Edited to add: Residents of Montreal AND non-residents are able to use the splash pad at the nearby Valleycrest Pool. Details on the pool’s website are non-existent, and I didn’t get a reply to my email, but you can find some info on the city’s website HERE. Intrepid reader Sarah and her mom did some checking for me and reported back (thanks!) I DO suggest you call yourself before going to check the hours and rates.
Here’s what Sarah found out: The splash pad is open to the public from 1:00 to 9:00 each day. If you live within the City of Montreal then you can get an access card for a really small fee and it grants you admittance all summer. For non-residents who are not living in one of the Montreal Boroughs, you can still visit, but you have to pay each day ($2/adult and $1/child)
I have a couple of (ugly, off-season) pics of the splash pad that I’ll find and add to this post.