Equipment by Miracle.
Surface: wood chips.
With a new playground, heaps of open space, adjacent to a school and a huge recreation centre, Confederation Park has a lot going for it.
The equipment, like most equipment in recently-rejuvenated Scarborough parks, is by Miracle, in their signature turquoise and green colour scheme. It’s good, though not spectacular, and it’s got just about all the requisite equipment. The interesting M-shaped piece connecting two sections of the senior climbing structure is pretty cool, and there’s a long trail of balancing / monkey bars that makes for a decent obstacle course.
For younger playgrounders, there are some tactile panels and a small climber, along with a spinner and a dopey-looking alligator that can be ridden for a good laugh.
For a park with so much space it’s unfortunate that they didn’t include a sandbox or any water features here…although there is a beach volleyball area (no nets were up when we went) that could double as a gigantic sandbox if no volleyballers are around. There are also no bathrooms, although the rec centre isn’t too far of a walk.
I’m not sure whether it was the mood my son was in, or whether it’s something inherent to the playground, but my 8-year-old ended up having more fun in the park itself than the playground. We played basketball for a bit, climbed trees for a bit (several of the trees seem custom made for this) and even played catch with some snowballs from the piles of snow near deposited by the Zamboni near the rec centre. It was quite a novelty to be able to do this on a hot day in July.
I don’t know if this one is at the top of my list for Scarborough playgrounds, but it’s a nice big park with lots of options, plenty of parking, and of course, summer snowballs.