Wildwood Park

Please young royals at castle-like playgrounds

Sometimes I prefer a wooden, rickety rollercoaster to a streamlined, steel one. Therefore I thought my children might like to try an “old-school” wooden playground instead of the newfangled community play areas we usually visit.

Wildwood Park, at 785 W. Broadway in the village of Granville, has a great wooden playground. Volunteers built it in 1993, according to a sign on the property.

At its entrance, the structure resembles a castle or a fort, depending on which of my children you ask. It’s got wooden towers with pyramid-shaped tops and a labyrinth of walkways with lots of hiding places. There are multiple levels, with several metal slides, and swings and tunnels made of old tires.

We visited the park, 40 minutes east of Columbus, on a hot day before school started in August, as a way to celebrate the impending end of summer. We spent most of our time under a shady tree amid the structure, which lent a tree house feel to it. I sat in the middle as my children ran around me, looking for clues that led to a pot of gold painted on a treasure map.

The park also contains soccer fields, clean bathrooms and a water fountain.

The promise of ice cream inspired my kids to wrap up their play. We headed a half mile west back toward downtown Granville where we found Whit’s Frozen Custard at 138 E. Broadway.

Whit’s is a decade-old, local establishment where they make the custard fresh every day. We got cups of the Buckeye flavor – peanut-butter custard with chunks of Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups – and sat an iron table under a market umbrella.

It was a fitting end to an old-school adventure that never goes out of style.

For more information, visit www.granvillerec.org/parks-facilities/wildwood-park.

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Columbus Commons

Former downtown mall is now an eventful lawn for all

As I walk through the grassy lawn of Columbus Commons, I can’t help but think of the Talking Heads song “Nothing But Flowers.”

“There was a shopping mall, now it’s all covered with flowers,” sings David Byrne in the ’80s hit. “Once there were parking lots, now it’s a peaceful oasis.”

In 1989, about the same year the song came out, the Columbus City Center opened in downtown Columbus. The shopping center offered more than a million square feet of merchandise in the heart of downtown.

The mall closed in 2009, and to the surprise of many it reverted to a huge public lawn in the center of the city, where food trucks now converge and friends gather to play kickball.

Columbus Commons is a 7-acre green space featuring gardens designed by Franklin Park Conservatory, an outdoor reading room sponsored by Friends of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and a whimsical carousel carved by the artists at Mansfield’s Carousel Works.

Children can ride the carousel for free during Commons for Kids, a family-friendly event held Fridays from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. through Aug. 29. They also can romp on the lawn, play with a life-size chess set, make structures out of interlocking foam shapes and participate in organized crafts.

The park even has a state-of-the-art performance space called Columbus Bicentennial Pavilion. More than 200 programs are held there annually, including Picnic with the Pops and Shakespeare in the Park.

If all this play makes you hungry, get some pizza  at Mikey’s Late Night Slice or a creative cone at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams – two Columbus originals that now have permanent shops at the park.

Columbus Commons is open daily from 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Parking is available at nearby garages at 55 E. Rich St. and 191 S. Third St.

For a list of family-friendly events, visit columbuscommons.org/happenings/families.

Stay tuned to the park’s events calendar at columbuscommons.org/happenings/event-calendar.

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Hayden Falls

A pocket of paradise amid urban sprawl

There’s a pocket of paradise amid urban sprawl on the Northwest Side of Columbus, where you’ll find rare plants in a wooded gorge and an impressive, 25-foot-high waterfall.

Located at 4335 Hayden Run Rd., near the intersection of Hayden Run Road and Riverside Drive, Hayden Falls has been drawing nature lovers and romantics for decades. Part of Griggs Nature Preserve, the small park offers spectacular rock formations, diverse plant life and a surprising waterfall, hidden from the nearby busy roads and close-knit homes.

The falls are visible above from two overlooks and below from a wooden boardwalk. For a close look, park in the little lot along Hayden Run Road, then descend a cliff by a wooden stairway. Walk the 150-foot boardwalk, alongside a sycamore-lined stream, toward the falls.

The stairway and boardwalk were added in 2006 to protect visitors from getting hurt and to protect the fragile ecosystem.

Water levels vary throughout the year – from trickling to gushing. For best views, visit after a hard rain in spring or during a cold spell when snow and ice turn the area into a winter wonderland.

There are no benches or bathrooms about, and a sign reads, “No swimming, wading, fishing, climbing or rappelling.” The sign also warns visitors to remain on the boardwalk or be prosecuted, although it’s evident that people disobey the sign. On a recent visit, I observed a tiny snowman near the falls.

The park, open daily from 7 a.m.-8 p.m., is managed by the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department.

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Liberty Park

Play on sandy playground at picturesque park in Powell

When there’s nothing particular to do on a warm afternoon in central Ohio, my family and I often seek out an awesome playground or a picturesque park.

We recently found both at Liberty Park at 2845 Home Road in Powell, Ohio. From the moment you enter the park’s winding driveway, between white picket fences surrounded by marigolds, you know you’ve found a secluded sanctuary to while away the hours. Across the street is a placid cornfield.

The park contains soccer fields, softball diamonds and basketball and tennis courts. It also has a fishing pond, sledding hill and nearly two-mile walking loop through the woods and over bridges. My kids, though, ran straight for the big playground.

Labeled “Every Kid’s Playground,” the equipment is the kind parents are coming to expect at playgrounds these days: interconnected contraptions that encourage children to climb, scale, swing and slide. This one also has a popular rolling slide, sand area and lots of flowers planted along the perimeter.

What I liked best was how noticeably quiet the park is, distanced from noisy highways and housing developments. It just seemed to exist, tucked under the wide-open sky. Most parents there seemed to know one another, and kept quietly to themselves, too, adding to the serenity.

The park, which is operated by the Liberty Township Parks Department, is open daily from 9 a.m. to dusk.

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Chief Leatherlips

Play by 12-foot-high limestone head at park by Scioto River

Little did we know that on the very day we visited the Leatherlips monument in the Columbus suburb of Dublin, the limestone sculpture of a Native American chief was quietly celebrating its 22nd birthday.

Not that we would have known. There was no one else around the 12-foot-high limestone head on this sweltering day. But on July 1, 1990, the Dublin Arts Council held a dedication ceremony at the statue’s location in Scioto Park, an area along the Scioto River that was once home to the Wyandot chief, as well as near his unfortunate place of death.

In addition to the Leatherlips statue, the park has a play area, several picnic shelters and an amphitheater with grass seating and a 1,000-square-foot, wooden stage. During June and July, the park hosts “Sundays at Scioto,” featuring musical acts from 7-8:30 p.m. at the amphitheater.

Our family of four stopped by the roadside attraction at 7377 Riverside Drive on a whim to let the kids play at the playground and to explore the statue, which you can climb atop for intriguing family photos. The outing ended up being a delightful, impromptu adventure that also included skipping stones into the Scioto and climbing an easily scalable tree.

The highlight, however, remains the monument and its mystic lore. Situated on a sloping lawn, the statue stares westward – the setting sun illuminating its white stone. Legend has it that Leatherlips, who was a friend to the early white settlers, wouldn’t follow his tribe as they headed northward in 1810, so they gave him an ultimatum: Either he’d join them or face certain death.

Leatherlips knelt down beside his own grave, looked toward the sun and took a tomahawk to the forehead.

These days, it’s popular around central Ohio to blame Leatherlips for the inclement weather that typically accompanies the Memorial golf tournament held in the spring at nearby Muirfield Village. I don’t know about curses, but we found Leatherlips and his cozy park to be a real charmer.

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Ballantrae Spray Park

Beat heat, dance with 15-foot-tall bunnies

Housing developments tend to look alike with “rows of houses that are all the same,” as the Monkees sang in their 1960s hit song “Pleasant Valley Sunday.”

But the whimsical community of Ballantrae, in the Columbus suburb of Dublin, is a pleasant exception. It resembles an Irish countryside with stone houses, fabricated rolling hills, decorative grasses and hand-stacked, rubble walls.

And then, of course, there are the 15-foot-tall dancing rabbits.

The three statues, titled the “Dancing Hares,” are part of a 32-acre community park at the entrance of the development at 6350 Woerner Temple Rd. The park also contains the Ballantrae Spray Park, an outdoor water fountain that’s a popular hangout for families in the summer.

The fountain is open daily from 10 a.m.-8 p.m., May 26 through Sept. 3.

I enjoy taking my two young children to inspect the rabbits, which have everyday objects embedded in their bronze bodies. We climb the hilltop where the rabbits are perched and play a quick game of “I Spy” before heading back down to the adjacent fountain. “Look, Mommy, a camera,” my daughter, Rosie, says.

We can hear children squealing with delight as they splash in the fountain.

The spray park, which opened in 2002, is a great place for a picnic. It’s surrounded by a lawn containing big boulders, a fishing pond and a jogging path. The center is the earth mound, or hillock, with the dancing hares. In front of the hill is a 125-foot stone-like (it’s really concrete) wall that frames the spray park. Leprechaun faces are carved into the wall and a wave of water cascades from its center.

Rosie and Max like to play in the fountains that shoot from the ground. Water jets change pattern and heights from one foot to three feet. Less-adventuresome children can take their time getting used to the water in little fountains that spew low, frothy water, while thrill seekers can run under the gushing waterfall.

There’s a nearby parking area with public restrooms.

Take a blanket, chairs, towels and toys and a picnic basket. There’s not much shade on sunny days, so bring along sunscreen and an umbrella.

The Ballantrae play area is located across the street from the Dublin Community Pool, which is open only to Dublin residents.

For more information, visit dublinohiousa.gov/parks-open-space/ballantrae-community-park-spray-fountains.

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Oakland Nursery

Have a field day at your local garden center

Taking the children to the local garden center for family entertainment may sound like an odd proposition. But in my experience, the neighborhood nursery is just the place for family bonding, educational exploration and finding the right colorful blooms to enhance my container garden.

Central Ohio is home to a number of gardening and landscaping stores. Most offer a wide variety of healthy plants, shrubs and trees that are neatly organized and labeled. Perusing the product-lined paths can be adventuresome for children. Many stores also offer family-friendly workshops and seasonal events with free entertainment.

My family of four likes to visit Oakland Nursery at 1156 Oakland Park Ave. to find flowers for my front-porch containers. Selecting annuals and planting them at home with my children has become a yearly ritual.

Shopping at Oakland is easy for my husband and me and fun for our children thanks to the store’s shopping carts that have play trucks and cars affixed to the front. Rosie and Max like to choose their own vehicle and toot the horns as we meander about 10 acres of landscaping products.

Rosie likes to join her daddy in exploring the outdoor living space behind one of the nursery’s buildings.

Oakland also offers a seasonal food truck and a small playground with swings and a slide that’s usually occupied by giddy children.

Below is more information about several family-friendly garden centers in central Ohio:

Oakland Nurseries: Oakland has four locations in central Ohio including a garden center at 1156 Oakland Park Ave. that includes a playground and shopping carts with Little Tikes cars affixed to the front. Seasonal events include a terrific Fall Festival in October with free activities, a costume contest and entertainment.

deMonye’s Greenhouse: 2500 Airport Drive, Columbus. This family-owned business, established in 1929, offers a “little sprouts” garden class and unique workshops, including how to build fairy gardens. Visit in October for its haunted greenhouse maze.

Strader’s Garden Centers: Stader’s has six locations in central Ohio, including a garden center at 5350 Riverside Drive that uniquely offers a full-service bike shop with a select line of Schwinn and Mongoose bikes.

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North Orange Park

Clever layout allows parents to keep watchful eye on kids

With so many innovative community parks popping up around central Ohio, it’s a great time to be a kid in the capital city. Sprawling recreation areas, such as North Orange Park in Lewis Center, also make it a great time to be a parent here.

The 36-acre community complex – 25 minutes north of downtown Columbus – contains soccer fields, basketball courts, paved walking trails, a sledding hill and a picnic shelter. The park also has a multi-level playground and a large sand pit, where my young children and I recently spent several hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

We dug our bare feet in the clump-free sand and played on a peculiar seesaw where riders stand on either end and propel themselves off old tires.

What makes the space unique is a small hill near the parking lot. I joined other parents for a seat on the well-manicured grass. From the elevated vantage point, I could watch my children play in the sand below or in the two nearby playgrounds. One playground is designed for toddlers with low slides and a rocking car and alligator.

The park is located at 7560 Gooding Blvd. in the North Orange subdivision. Nearby are restrooms and an 8,500-square-foot outdoor community pool with giant, colorful slides. Even though we couldn’t visit the pool (you need to be a member), it still looked cool from the playground.

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