Wednesday, May 16, 2018

materion park

You know that feeling you get when you read the scene from The Shack where Mack drives out to the park and eventually finds the place where his daughter was killed?

There's a park in Roseville that's . . . Let's just say it stirs similar feelings. And we happened to find it this week.

Welcome to Materion Park (225 Minnesota Avenue, Roseville), friends.


Here's what you need to know:
Parking: Off-street
Age range (playground): 1+
Sidewalks: Paved to play area and around park (trail)
Seating: Benches by play area
Bathrooms: None
Picnic tables: None
Grills: None
Sports field: Maybe some off-shore fishing by the pond?

After parking on the street, I sat and debated whether or not I wanted to check out this park. It had a beautiful sign, like all Roseville Parks do, but I couldn't see it from the road.


What I could see was a nicely-paved trail that started at the street, ran between two homes, and disappeared around a forested bend.

If you're anything like me, at this point you're trying to decide if you and your kids are going to get abducted in the woods or not.

I told myself I was being silly (overactive imagination here) and that it'd be a wonderful find, as most Roseville parks are. So I off we went into the woods (to grandmother's house, la la la).


As soon as we hit the bend in the road, I expected to see the playground up ahead. Instead, we were met with a full-blown forest and a fork in the trail.

I couldn't see which way was what. What I could see was a pond down the trail to my right. I figured they wouldn't build a playground by a pond--safety precautions, right?--and we took the trail to the left.

As members of the Dinosaur Train would say, my hypothesis was correct. A minute or two later I could see the colors of the playground poking through the wood.


I could also see sticks arranged on the trail in the form of a circle. There were more sticks laid out in the circle, along with a baby toy.

Among the million thoughts that immediately popped into my mind, I chose to be rational and mentally congratulated whatever mischievous teenagers pulled this prank.

Ha-ha, you got me. No, really. Please don't do stuff like that in the middle of the forest on a trail that leads to a playground.

That's creepy to the max.


Anyway, I put on my brave mommy face and continued on. Luckily, the playground was only a few yards from the unsettling site. The kids ran off to play and I shook off the nerves from the scene we just saw (and paid extra close attention to every rustle I heard).

The play area is laid with mulch. The playground itself is tiny. It's got a pair of double slides, stairs, a single step as an alternative way to get onto the playground, and raised steps leading to a climbing rock connected to the playground.


Off to one side of the playground is a stretch of closely-linked monkey bars. Madeline was able to traverse them with no problem. In the center is a twirly seat. Those features are all there is to the playground.

The rest of the play area includes two baby swings, a huge climbing rock, and a plastic log that doubles as a tunnel or additional climbing obstacle.


My kids were very unimpressed with the play area. Most of the time we were there (no longer than 20 minutes) was spent checking out the critters detailed into the artificial climbing obstacles (we found a mouse, beetle, and lady bug).

The equipment and trail are in great condition (I can imagine why very few people visit). Unfortunately, that's one of the few good things about Materion. We are most definitely not going back or recommending this park to others.

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