Play in the Great Outdoors of Hamilton County, Ohio!
At first glance, when we came across the Hassling and Savage families enjoying homemade peanut butter and freshly made blueberry jelly sandwiches, we were not exactly sure whether we were in a local Do It Yourself open-air diner, a children's playground, a cageless zoo, a pirate's den, or a combination of the above.
The truth of the matter is that we had just entered into one of the best-designed series of county playgrounds in the United States. Hamilton County, Ohio, is one of the most populous counties in a state that is already densely populated. It has taken it upon itself to provide the children of its residents and visitors with a variety of free and low-cost playgrounds and other recreational opportunities. And with good reason, too.
Hamilton County is located in the southwest corner of the State of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat. The population is currently approximately 900,000, making it the third most populous county in Ohio. There are 346,790 households in the county with 212,582 families residing in them. Out of this total, 30 percent had children under the age of 17 living in them.
There are three major wet playgrounds located within the county's massive park system, all with no fee or only a slight admission charge and a set of strict usage rules. These include:
Parky's Ark
Located at the Winton Woods Harbor, this wet play area includes 18 animal figures that squirt and spray water onto the surface.
Parky's Pirate Cove
Located at Miami Whitewater Forest Harbor, this elaborate wet playground has alligators and a giant octopus.
Parky's Wetland Adventure
This newest wet playground at Woodland Mound features a 16-foot tree with two slides, whimsical great blue herons, frogs, turtles, and flowers, all of which spray water.
Find fees and hours on greatparks.org
Children who are supervised by a parent or guardian and wearing bathing suits may play in the wet playgrounds. All diaper-wearing toddlers must wear swim diapers under a bathing suit. Groups are required to have an adult supervisor for every six children.
Our Adventure at Parky's
The Savage and Hassling adults and brood (Megan Hassling and Molly, Erin and Katlyn Savage) were having lunch (prepared by Jim Savage, employing both his Boy Scout training and survival skills) in the picnic pavilion in Winton Woods Park, in the shadows of a giant green, climb-on, around, and under, concrete alligator. Nearby was a full-scale replica of a pirate ship, a fixed mount, a swivelable water cannon, a giant, tippable water-filled coconut, and a giant octopus. The children were, according to Judy Hassling, the mother of three of the youngsters, just cooling down for lunch and after a bit of another form of county-inspired recreation, hiking!
It seems as part of their overall fitness, health, and well-being initiatives, the county parks services have established a hiking activity with a formal achievement rewards program. According to Judy Hassling, the requirements are that to complete the program, an individual must hike a minimum of seven hikes on any of the trails within any of the county parks within a calendar year. That makes one eligible to receive a free county hiking stick. Each year after that, to repeat that requirement, the county presents you with a medallion to add to the stick.
As lunch was finished, it was time for the children to vent some more of their pent-up energy in the wet playground. The green concrete alligator was large enough to accommodate all the children at one time. All the commercially purchased play structures in the playgrounds, in fact, can handle use by multiple children.
The well-thought-out advantage of having large-scale animals and structures for the children to play on is the contact and communication by them with one another. The education, the new friends they make, and the social interaction they gain in cooperating are priceless. It's education in its most painless form!
Hamilton County's Parks
The Hamilton County Park District features 17 developed parks and four conservation areas set aside strictly for habitat protection. The developed parks offer numerous trails, picnic areas, playgrounds, camping, fishing lakes, and golf courses.
Traditional playgrounds can be found at the following parks: Embshoff Woods, Lake Isabella, Fernbank Park, Miami Whitewater Forest, Mitchell Memorial Forest, Sharon Woods, Francis RecreAcres, Shawnee Lookout, Winton Woods, and Woodland Mound.
Parky's PlayBarn, located at Parky's Farm in Winton Woods, is a former dairy barn that has been converted into an indoor, farm-theme, accessible play experience.
If you find yourself in the Cincinnati area, make sure you visit Parky's Water Playgrounds and the other amazing recreation options of Hamilton County.
