Before this area was developed, there was a great sand prairie. Most of it has been paved over and developed or turned into farms. Thankfully some of it has been preserved in the 61 acres of the Holland Sand Prairie. This area is open to the public for a beautiful walk. Bring your camera to photograph the wildflowers or just enjoy nature. More information can be found on the official website or on sites like these:
This is an older park in the Apple Valley neighborhood off Sand Lake Road. It two wooden climbing structures, a tall metal slide, a merry go round, a large sandbox, a teeter-totter-like rocking toy, and a swingset with two regular and three baby swings. Two of the baby swings are the old fashioned kind with the bar. There's also a baseball field, a basketball court, and a tennis court. The bathroom is a porta potty. There isn't much for little kids as the climbing structures aren't meant for little ones.
This park is also called Prairie Woods. It is right on XX but there is a tiny parking area on the Prairie Woods side. There are long paths leading to the park from there and from Ver Meer on the other side. We didn't stop because the park was a long walk in but I took a picture from the road. The park has one large play structure with four slides on it. There's also an open shelter.There were no swings as far as I could see from the road.
This is a small park in a new neighborhood. There isn't a lot there, but they may plan on expanding. Currently there is a large plastic slide, a swing set with four regular swings (no baby swings), a rocking horse, and a small modern teeter totter.
Note that the Google map isn't quite right. Off New Amsterdam road, you want to turn onto Mc Wain Drive, not Pine View as it's named on the map. You'll know you have the right road if you see the end of an airport runway on the other side. Seriously.
The Google map isn't very helpful for this park. It looks as though Gaynor Dr hooks up to McHugh, but it doesn't. What you want to do is take Briggs along side the high school and make a left on Sween Drive. That takes you over to Gaynor. Take a left and follow that down to St Croix.
Unfortunately, the park itself isn't worth all the effort of finding it. The playground is old style equipment and there's not much there. The swing set has two regular swings, a swinging bar, and swinging rings. There are no baby swings. Attached to the swing set is a teeter totter and on the other side is a metal slide. The playground is way back from the road with the grass baseball field between it and the road.
Because of the old style equipment, this park isn't recommended for babies and toddlers. Older kids would do ok with it.
The playground equipment is set way back from the road with Skogen field before it. There is a small modern play structure with a slide, a wooden play structure with a metal slide, a swing set with three regular and one baby swing, and a metal climbing structure. The park also has an open shelter, a one hoop basketball court, and a sand baseball field.
This surprisingly large park is tucked away behind an apartment building with only the sign visible from the road. It has a large open area with tennis and basketball courts and picnic tables. There are two climbing structures but, unfortunately, are not much more than glorified slides. There's also an old fashioned metal structure. The swingset has the usual two regular, two baby. There's plenty of off street parking tucked away with the park. The park is lacking any sort of shelter, water, or bathroom, which is unfortunate because it would otherwise make a great park for a playdate.
This is a huge park near Sand Lake road in Onalaska. The playground has a small climbing structure with a slide and a big one with a slide and monkey bars. There is a swingset with two regular and two baby swings. The closed shelter has a bathroom and a soda machine. For sports, there are two baseball fields and a horseshoes pit.
This good sized neighborhood park has two modern climbing structures that are little more than stand alone slides. There's the usual two regular, two baby swingset. Older kids will enjoy the blue monkey bars climbing structure, the gymnastic bars, and the one hoop basketball court.
