Washington Center Playground

Washington Center is a Community Center in downtown Duluth.  The grounds have a nice view, a community garden, parking lot, and playground.  There is fencing on two sides facing the streets.  There are benches and a picnic table.

The surface is wood chips.  This park did have some trash on the ground, despite nearby garbage cans.

Features include:

• 1 slide
• Monkey bars
• Spinning screw
• Corkscrew
• Pull-up bar
• Twisted ladder
• Stairs

Duluth Parks page

Park Point

Park Point is a beautiful park out on Minnesota Point.  You have to cross the aerial lift bridge and then drive about 4 miles down the point to get to the park, but on a hot day when you want a cold beach, it's worth it.  The beach is three miles long and the water is cold.  Be careful to watch for poison ivy along the trails to the beach and hot sand on the way down to the water.  There is a lifeguard on duty in the summer and a beach house along with volleyball, walking trails and other fun stuff.
But now for the playground!  Park Point has one of the most unique playgrounds in Duluth.  There is the regular playground structure like you will see in other locations (Chester Park), featuring a sand surface and:

• Track glider
• 2 double slides
• Spinning wheel monkey bars
• Ladders/stairs
• Rock climbing holds
• Pull-up bar
• 2 swings
• 2 baby swings

The more interesting part of the playground is a replica of a great lakes freighter made out of wood.  It's really just for kids to run around and pretend that they're on a laker, but they sure love it.  There are also two giant tires at the end, filled with sand a la a sandbox.

Duluth Parks page

Grant Park

Grant park is a playground that we had visited right after moving to Duluth, but had completely forgotten about.  It is a really nice playground right next to Meyers-Wilkins Elementary school and has a community resource center on site.  There are soccer fields, basketball courts, and a community garden.  I did have to watch the two year old near the garden boxes since he thought it looked enticing but after that, they playground captured his attention.  The park is fenced on two sides and there is only one road nearby.  It might be a concern on school days since it appears to be the school entrance, but it was very low traffic when we visited. There are picnic tables, benches, and shade trees.  It is in full sun and we got pretty hot before 10 a.m.  I assume there are bathrooms inside the community center but there was a group using the center when we were there and I didn't want to intrude.
The playground is sand surface with some rubber mat beneath the main steps.  Some features are:

• 2 swings
• 2 baby swings
• Bouncing circle to stand on
• Rock structure (no holds)
• Rock wall with holds
• 3 slides
• Speaking tubes
• Corkscrew
• Monkey bars
• Plastic ladder nets
• Ladders and stairs
• Pull up bar
• Spinning wheel to hang from
• Fireman pole
• Steering wheel

Update August 2017: the roller slide has been removed and replaced with a wavy plastic slide.  The covered corkscrew slide has been removed and replaced with a rock wall with holds.  My boys were very sad to see the roller slide gone but it's still a quiet and large park that is very pleasant to visit.

Duluth Parks page