The Best of Fort Collins: Playgrounds!
Published on November 30, 2020 - Updated on November 30, 2020
3 Must-Visit Playgrounds in Fort Collins
In what seems like a lifetime ago, I was a student at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. I loved the town! It had everything, yet never felt like a big city. Ultimately, jobs took our family a bit farther south, but we still visit often, now with our girls!
Our love of parks began when my youngest was born for a couple of reasons. First, it was too difficult to do much more than a short playground trip with an infant, and second, it was too expensive to go to all of the cool paid places with three kids!
In our quest to find fun playgrounds, we discovered so many amazing ones that were fairly unknown, and Fort Collins was no different. It is difficult to trim down our list to only three, but if you’re going to visit, these are the three we suggest you check out first!
#1 Twin Silo Park
5552-5564 Ziegler Road, Fort Collins, CO 80528
If you’ve heard about a Fort Collins playground already, it is very likely Twin Silo Park. A Regional Park, Twin Silo has it all, and it has it big! You know you’re getting close when you spot two large silos and as you get even closer, you realize there’s a huge slide connecting them! My daughters (ages 12, 9, and 6) love this park and ask to go back all of the time.
In addition to the eye-catching silo slide, there is a huge barn-shaped play structure. Inside you’ll find rope nets to climb, a breathtakingly high bridge to walk across, a person-powered elevator, a toddler play area, and more. Outside of the play structure, there are monkey bars, seesaw, swings, and a zipline!
To really make your time at Twin Silo memorable, take along a net to try your hands at catching crawdads in the stream nearby!
#2 Sugar Beet Park
524 San Cristo Street, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Second on our list of Fort Collins playgrounds is Sugar Beet Park. Parents love it because it is like visiting an outdoor museum and kids love it because of the giant sugar beet! The history lesson here is that Fort Collins used to be home to Great Western Sugar Factory and you can learn all about it while you’re there at the park.
Your children will love climbing over and within the giant sugar beet structure! The “stalk” is constructed as a large log obstacle course and there are smaller beets for toddlers to climb. Trains were also a big part of the industry so the park has a train station shaped pavilion and movable benches on tracks. Among these extremely unique elements, you’ll also find a four-person seesaw, a chair zipline, cone spinner, and swings.
#3 Library Park
207 Peterson Street, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Last on our list of must-see playgrounds in Fort Collins is Library Park. This newly updated playground is in the heart of Old Town and is adorable! Designed to be inclusive for all, there are ramps, sensory elements, rubber surfacing and our favorite, the We Go Round. Essentially, the We Go Round is a merry go round constructed to allow kids to sit, stand, push and ride on with a wheelchair - everyone can participate!
Book lovers will be enamored by the climbable book stack, cute animal characters, bookshelf ladder and vowel scavenger hunt. For the adventurous kids, there is an obstacle course (geared toward ages 3 to 8) and a tall curvy slide.
To complete your visit, take a trip to Ben & Jerry’s in Old Town Square (1 Old Town Square Suite 104, Fort Collins, CO 80524). It’s a perfect treat for the kids and you’ll love hanging out in the town square!
There are so many great playgrounds in Fort Collins so stay tuned and follow @gethappyly for even more ideas across Colorado.
Go enjoy these beautiful parks and be sure to tag your highlights on Instagram @gethappyly!! Please send your favorite Colorado playgrounds to share@happyly.com, so we can get an ambassador out to cover it if we haven't already - we love to hear from you!
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