battle creek regional park

Is anyone else here directionally challenged? As in your "directions" consist of landmarks and "north" is always whichever way you're facing? If so, you're in good company.

When I'm not driving the car, I'm not paying attention to my surroundings. I'm simply enjoying the ride.

But when I'm driving, especially somewhere new, I've got Google Maps open and my kids know not to talk to me so I can focus on getting to the right location.

I was baffled, then, when I looked at all the photos we'd taken at this park and the location tagged was "Battle Creek Regional Park" instead of the park I thought we'd gone to.

So here I am, nevertheless writing about a park I didn't intend to visit, thanks to my superior sense of direction.


Here's what you need to know:
Parking: Lot
Age range (playground): 1+
Sidewalks: Well-paved to playground with trails around the park
Seating: A few benches in play area
Bathrooms: NA
Picnic tables: In picnic shelters
Grills: In picnic shelters
Sports field: Open fields

There are two sections to Battle Creek Regional Park: an east side and a west side. We ended up at the east side (2300 Upper Afton Road, Saint Paul) where the water park is located.


This beautifully-landscaped park has soft rolling hills and shady trees surrounding the parking lot and some of the picnic shelters. The playground is located across the lot from the water park.

There are two picnic shelters in this part of the park: A huge one that probably seats close to 75 people (I think there may be bathrooms located at this site) and a medium-sized one that probably seats up to 50 people. Both have picnic tables galore and grills.


The play area is a short walk down a hill from the parking lot. It's laid with mulch. There are two sections for different age groups: 1+ and 5+. Zoey (16 months) comfortably navigated the smaller playground while the other two (ages 4.5 and 3) enjoyed the challenge of the bigger playground.


The smaller playground has stairs, a tic-tac-toe board, tunnel, ladder, and double slide. There's also a steering wheel for your little driver to play with. The bigger playground has stairs, monkey bars, a climbing wall, tunnel, slide, and spiral climber.

To the side of the playgrounds is a set of swings complete with a high back, baby, and regular swings.


The most negative aspect of this play area was that it sits under the merciless sun. We visited around 3 in the afternoon and felt like raisins 45 minutes in. We ended up leaving earlier than we planned to because we were too hot to keep playing.

If you're planning an extended stay, find out where the bathrooms are and bring a big umbrella to hide under when you get hot.