Woodlands Water Park (Spray Park) in St. Albert

We met some friends at the Woodlands Water Park (in Red Willow Park) in St. Albert today.  This is a very impressive facility, possibly one of the best spray park experiences in the greater Edmonton area.  It was a hot day and was quite busy but didn't feel overcrowded.  Here is what it has to offer:

• free admission
• a ton of water fountains/hoses/buckets for spray park fun for the kids
• a decent sized playground
• a fence surrounding the entire facility with only one entrance, so you don't have to worry too much about your kids getting too far away
• nice indoor bathrooms
• a store with onion rings, popcorn, ice cream, etc. (popsicles 75 cents, big bucket of popcorn $4)
• lots of room for adults to watch their kids play, with chairs and shaded areas.  Extremely impressive benches with roofs that were really comfortable (and lots of them).  They also had a bunch of pool chairs, pretty impressive all around
• a fair bit of parking, even on a busy day the overflow lot was practically empty

Bike racks at the park, very nice

This chain link fence keeps kids in (or out)

The playground

Layout of Water Park

Puddle Hiking Near Wolf Willow Playground

Swings and T-Rex Head

This afternoon we went to Wolf Willow Playground for the kids to play, and ended up going for a short hike to the new Fort Edmonton Footbridge.  The paths/hiking trails in that neighborhood are quite family friendly, very nice and well groomed.  It started raining as we were hiking so we ended up just going to the top of the stairs that lead down to the bridge and then went back to the playground for the kids to play.  The kids loved the hike, since there were huge puddles everywhere to splash in, and ended up having a lot of fun.

Playground Details:

• pretty nice, one of the larger playgrounds in the city
• has a full set of swings, both for babies and larger kids
• has two play structures, with tons of slides
• has a sand play area with a plastic dinosaur partially buried, the kids loved this one and spent most of their time digging out dinosaur bones
• this playground is never crowded

Buried Dinosaur

Play Structure

Stairs Leading Down to the Footbridge

View of the Footbridge

Pigeon Lake

Pigeon Lake

Last Saturday we went to Pigeon Lake for a beach day.  We bought some sandwiches from Save On, then started at the beach in the provincial park, moved on to the playground, and finally stopped by the Village for some ice cream.  Here are some details of the day:

• the beach was fairly nice, a little rocky at parts but OK sand wise and not painful to walk on
• the water was cool but felt nice with the hot weather, it was a little murky but not bad at all for an Alberta lake
• the swimming area was fairly large, maybe 100 meters at most along the shoreline and 30 feet out, or so
• the beach dropped off fairly quickly (to about 2 feet deep within 2 feet), so maybe not ideal for little children but definitely not dangerous if you keep an eye on your kids
• the playground was decent if not spectacular, and there was also a field and an outdoor volleyball court
• bathrooms were outhouses
• there seemed to be ample parking, with an overflow lot
• there are at least two other beaches in the neighborhood, we drove by Me-me-o beach but it seemed a lot more crowded
• ice cream at the Village was nice, a fine selection of ice creams and drinks for a reasonable price (the kids cones cost $2.50, the adult cones cost $3.50)
• the drive to the lake took about 90 minutes from Edmonton
• there were lots of accommodations to stay at near Pigeon Lake, hotel and RV spots at the Village and camp spots at the Provincial Park 

Conclusion: great place to have a beach day a short drive from Edmonton



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The murky water

The beach (from the parking lot)

Playground

Ice Cream at the Village