Van Horne Park

We first visited this park in 2015 (Aw, look how cute he is in those pics!), and I finally got back in late 2017 so I could take video at the fantastictally beautiful new splash pad which replaced the old wading pool. The new splash pad features products from Waterplay Solutions Cirque collection and there’s the tall and pretty Parasol, the Aqua-Drop dumping bucket, and lots and lots of sprayers and curiously interesting and interactive components. I looked and looked on the ground for the magic button to turn on the water, and after a few laps around, saw that it’s in the orange “Presto” which is closest to the chalet. Kids can manipulate the water by covering various nozzles to increase the water pressure, or by bouncing on the red Boingo to get the nearby ground sprays soaring higher. Run under the spinning Encore, or spray your brother with one of the water cannons! 
There’s no fencing around the water area, but it is set back from the road quite a ways. There are picnic tables and benches nearby, as well as the chalet (which doesn’t have any set opening hours unfortunately.)

Parc Van Horne – Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce from StrollerMom on Vimeo.

And now, the playground!:

We really liked the THREE climbers, the rock mountain, and all the other equipment at this park! Only thing we didn’t like? The insane amount of trash everywhere, and the “sand areas” filled with stinging nettle. Don’t take off your shoes!

The play structures consist of a toddler climber and another toddler climber (I’d say for really young kids), both from Miracle Recreation; and a challenging and spread-out big-kid climber from Landscape Structures. 
They’re all basically in a row, so you should be able to watch a few kids at once. Not as close together are the big-kid swings and the 3D rock wall which are just across the sand and past some picnic tables. 
We walked past the baby swings and made a beeline for what I’ll call the intermediate climber. There are easy to access stairs, a nicely sloped rock-climbing wall for those little ones new to climbing, stairs up to the Typhoon slide, some low-to-the-ground monkey bars, ladders, a larger vertical rock climbing wall, ground level steering wheel and enough room to walk around the platforms. A really nicely designed climber. In the sand nearby are some little raised steps and pods, and a plastic alligator. We always play “there are alligators in the sand” and this time there really was!

Right beside is the smaller/easier climber, again with great stairs, a crawl tunnel, tic-tac-toe wall of dinosaurs, small slides, the Tot Rock bumpy climber, and ground level seats.
Everything is on sand, and it’s strange because I wonder if they meant to put down wood chips as the concrete borders seem to make little circular areas where there should be a sand “box”, but instead they are filled with weeds and tons of spiky plants. 

In the middle of the playground is a good-sized rope spiderweb, a strange and elaborate contraption that looks like it should do some cool moves but doesn’t, the bouncy Xccent X-Wave (the thing that looks like a caterpillar), and then a really good big-kid climber. 
This climber also has stairs, but they only lead to a steering wheel and then there’s a steep rise to climb up to access the slide. My little was also able to climb the rope web, and the slanted rock wall, but that was about it. He looked longingly at the monkey bars and the swinging stepping stones, and all the metal ladders and rungs…
In a couple of years little one! I did lift him up onto one platform to check out the periscope. That didn’t work. They never work.

This park was puzzling because we really, really liked all the equipment, all of which are nice and clean, but the sand and grass are kind of…..grungy. 

Things to note:
-The splash pad is on from 8am-9pm from mid-May until the end of September. You can read about the borough’s pools and splash pads HERE. 
-It is very, very hard to find street parking at this park. We came by once and I had to give up because there was just NOWHERE to park legally. 
-The playground is quite close to the street, though set down a hill, and there is NO fencing. (There WAS a fence when I took the pictures in 2015, but it’s since all been removed.)