Kid Stuff

Playing Around Town

local mom takes son on tour of Eau Claire’s neighborhood parks

Kristina Bourne |

 
QUITE THE SWINGER. Daley Bourne had a blast this summer visiting all of Eau Claire neighborhood parks including (clockwise from upper left): Grover Heights, Boyd, Kessler, Shawtown, and Cameron.

  "Is today a park day, mom?,” my three- year-old son, Daley, recently asked with excitement. A few months ago, we set a goal to visit every neighborhood park in Eau Claire. Would you have guessed that there are 18? According the City of Eau Claire’s website, the Parks Maintenance Division is responsible for maintaining nearly 650 acres of parkland, which includes the 18 neighborhood parks that we visited, school open sites (e.g. Robins Elementary School, Northstar Middle School), community parks (e.g. Phoenix Park, Carson Park, Owen Park), and urban parks/special areas/athletic fields (e.g. Putnam Park, Bollinger Fields). We averaged one neighborhood park visit per week, but on some days we visited a couple of parks if they were near each other. Exploring the different areas of Eau Claire as we tried to locate each park was especially interesting.

Our main focus was on the playground area of each park, but we watched as teenagers flew kites at Demmler Park, as residents exercised dogs at Kessler Park, and as kids played basketball at Boyd Park. 

An article entitled, “Let Them Play,” in the July 2010 issue of Parents magazine claims that unstructured play at neighborhood recreation areas “hones children’s intellectual and social gifts; it instills them with a sense of fairness and judgment; it builds their bodies with muscle and know-how; it endows them with competence.” 

Based on our 18 neighborhood park visits, I would have to agree. Daley learned how to take turns on the swings, how to share the toys other children had brought from home, and how to fine-tune his coordination and confidence as he climbed higher on the ladders.


     Although most of the park equipment had swings and slides, from a three-year-old’s perspective, no two parks were the same. County Farm Park, despite the small play equipment, was one of Daley’s favorite parks because it had a merry-go-round. He also really liked the sand digger (a backhoe type scooper) at Oakwood Hills Park, the first park we visited. An added bonus of Cameron Park was the beach ball someone had left behind that Daley rolled down the slide over and over and over again. From a parent’s perspective, I especially enjoyed when shade was available, like the towering pines at Shawtown Park (called Newell) or the pavilion with picnic tables at North River Fronts Park. We both were fond of the scenic overlooks of Dells Pond at McDonough Park and the bike trails along Half Moon Lake at Lakeshore Park (the playground is part of Lakeshore Elementary), which made for extra exploration.

Only two parks did not have a playground – Princeton Valley Park (which is really just a large grassy area without a sign so it is easily missed) and Pinehurst Park (which offers a large skating rink and a sledding hill in the winter). 

The facilities of most of the neighborhood parks are detailed on the City of Eau Claire website. Overall, we found the neighborhood parks to be clean, well-maintained, and underutilized. They are truly hidden gems in our town. If you are looking for something to do this fall, visiting our local parks is a great way to get fresh air, enjoy the autumn foliage, and have fun! 

    For more information on each park, including a map, visit www.eauclairewi.gov/parks-home-page/park-info/neighborhood-parks.