Playgrounds have gotten infinitely cooler since I was a kid. Most playgrounds that I enjoyed when I was younger consisted mainly of swings, slides and monkey bars.
The Wild West Jordan Playground in West Jordan City Park, is a playground themed around the wild west, or at least Utah's version of it. The entrance to the playground is marked by an old water tower which sits in front of an approximation of an 1880's Main Street complete with several different storefronts. Beyond and behind the Main Street facade, are areas that represent Utah in the 1880's and 1890's, all connected by bridges, tunnels and monkey bars.
The most impressive part of the entire structure is a multi-level playhouse built to represent the old Saltair resort in its heady days on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. From the top level of the playhouse, an enclosed twisty slide descends almost two stories.
Different walls of the structure are painted to look like the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine or the Wasatch Mountains. Built into the painting of the Wasatch Mountains are a small climbing wall with hand and footholds just like the big walls but not ascending too high, and safe enough for the kids to pretend they are mountain climbing.
There are two distinct areas of the playground, one for the tots, aged 2-5, and the bigger area for the kids from 5-12 years old. The Wild West Jordan Playground is limited to kids 12 or younger, is open dawn 'til dusk, and has cameras that provide 24 hour police surveillance.
And for those of you who crave the old fashioned playground from the days of your youth- yes, the Wild West Jordan Playground does have swings.
If you like Wild West Jordan, also take a look at Discovery Park.
Place: Wild West Jordan Playground (West Jordan City Park) 1985 West 7800 South, West Jordan, Utah
Time: Dawn to Dusk
Cost: Free
View Wild West Jordan Playground in a larger map
3 comments:
A friend on Facebook pointed me toward your blog and this post. I'm glad that you're enjoying Utah's biggest playground. To me the most impressive thing about that playground is that the citizens and businesses of West Jordan made it happen- not the City. All the money to build it was privately raised and then 6,000 people came together over a 10 day period to construct it. A gift to our children and community that we can all be proud of!
Thanks for the post. I'am always on the search for the best playgrounds to take my 3 year old son to. This place looks amazing.
I helped build it! And my sisters are the ones who started the project! It was truly an amazing thing to watch it go up in just 10 days and see the community come together to build it. I love to take my kids there.
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