conway park

My husband is a St. Paul native. I am not. There are times we venture in the capital and he's surprised at what we find. There are times when we venture in the capital and he laughs with a, "Don't go there. I coulda told you that."

This was one of those times.

We first headed to Conway Park (2090 Conway Street, Saint Paul) at Conway Community Recreation Center last summer with high hopes of cooling off in the water works area. We headed back this time around on a last-minute plan B for a play date.


Here's what you need to know:
Parking: Lot
Age range (playground): 1+
Sidewalks: Paved to and around play area
Seating: A few benches around play area
Bathrooms: None
Picnic tables: None
Grills: None
Sports field: Basketball court


Maybe the best feature of this park is its location: It sits between the community center and library. You can get a lot done pretty easily in this stretch of the neighborhood. It's also laid with turf, which is one of my favorite types of playground flooring.

The play area has three sections: a playground for kids 1+, a playground for kids 5+, and a splash pad.


The playground for small kids has monkey bars, a couple different climbing challenges, stairs, and double slides. It's extremely small; even Zoey (16 months) didn't care to play on it.

There are two baby swings by the small playground. One is broken and unusable. The other is in working condition.


The playground for big kids has several climbing obstacles, a bridge, stairs, spinner, elevated steps, and some slides. This is definitely for kids 5+. Both Madi (4.5) and Titus (3) had a lot of trouble scaling the equipment. Their favorite part of the playground was the spinner.

Between the two playgrounds are two diggers for older kids. Madi had a hard time using either because of their size.


The slides are metal and extremely fast. The largest one took Zoey by surprise. The bridge is also extremely steep, yet again taking Zoey by surprise.

It's not yet open season for the splash pad; however, we've played at it before when we visited last summer. Cement covers the splash pad area, which consists of a couple streams of water shooting out from the ground.


The splash pad isn't much, but the water does gather in the middle of the splash pad, keeping the kids entertained. On our visit, plenty of trash gathered as well, unfortunately.

The two playgrounds themselves are in good condition. The splash pad is mediocre. If you're in the area and need to stop for the kids to stretch their legs, it's worth the stop. I wouldn't go as far to say the park itself is worth driving out for.