Short Pump Park

3401 Pump Road
Ground Cover:  Mulch
Play Structure Count:  12
Safety:  High
Trash:  Moderate
Fun Rating:  Mmmkay

First off, let me say that when you see this sign,

Don't turn.  I know that arrow says, "Turn Right!  Turn Right right now!  The butterflies and unicorns await!"  But don't.  It looks like it goes down a nice little gravel path, and into the woods surrounding a quaint, tucked away little park you never knew existed...

And BAM.  A chained off road, far enough down that you didn't see it from Pump, so you couldn't stop yourself from turning in time.  And now you're screwed because you don't have enough space to 180 around, so you have to back out onto Pump.  Having fun at the park yet?!

Turn here for the butterflies and unicorns.

A baseball field will greet you on your right.  Across from it you'll find football field, complete with bleachers and a scoreboard, and a cute bathroom building with, "Home of the Kanawha Redskins" painted above it.  While we were there, lacrosse teams were practicing on the field. 
But you won't see the playground.  You'll have to get out and walk in between baseball and football, towards some covered picnic benches and then you'll find it - tucked away, a quaint little playground you never knew about.

That slide you see is one of the steepest slides I've ever met.  So I went down it myself, and I must admit it was actually really fun for the whole half a second of sliding time I got.  I was worried that Sparrow would fall flat on his little two year old face going down, but he seemed to manage OK.  There are no scary drop offs from that slide structure.  Even the rock wall is angled well so that, should a curious toddler attempt to climb down it after rolling a critical miss on his climbing skill check, he would tumble down as opposed to falling straight onto the ground.

From atop the slide structure, this is the view from the left.  That teeter-totter with the three cars has a really nice spring.  That little play house on the right entertained my little birds for a good twenty minutes.  The two swings are baby swings, and back up to the football field.

And here's the view from the right when atop the slide structure.  There's one of those fancy dancy rock walls and walks of doom that my children have no use for.  Maybe once we truly master stairs, but one thing at a time.  Tire swing, two big swings, and three of the swirly gigs.  The highlight however, is that tiny little thing you see Sparrow and Skylark poking at.  It's just some random table thing, with a little bowl and a sieve.  Sparrow got himself a stick and poked at stuff while Skylark took mulch out of the bowl and put it back.  Out of the bowl and put it back.  Poke poke with the stick.  Out of the bowl and put it back.  A good ten minutes of glorious toddler fun.

While I got a chance to survey the trash!

Standard fare that you'd find close to picnic tables.  Paper towels and napkins strewn about.  Candy wrappers.  Straws to juice boxes.  The most notable, however, was finding an empty canister of CO2 for a paint ball gun about six feet into the woods behind the slide.  The teenager in me giggled.

Overall I liked the toddler safety level.  No fence, but far away from the parking lot, woods on three sides, nothing to really fall off of.  The only injury was sustained when Skylark managed to get her hand caught between the car and spring on that bouncy car thing.  I'm sure there's a word for that.  So quite high on the safety scale.

The kids had fun.  Our pals Robin and Wren joined us.  We swang.  We span.  We slid.  And we found another park we never knew existed.