Blandair Regional Park
On December 18, Oliver and I visited Blandair Regional Park in Columbia, MD. We actually came across this park a week or two prior while visiting a smaller, but still very nice, playground in Ellicott City (more on that in a future post). Blandair, though, is pretty exceptional. There are four discrete areas of the park—north, south, east, and west—and at least three of those have playground apparatuses.
The nicest playground, which apparently is quite new (Howard County press release), is in the north area. This playground features a multilevel apparatus with a ridiculously long slide for older kids (though this equipment was taped off when we visited), a dinosaur graveyard apparatus for the 3-5 set, and a cute farm setup for toddlers. The playground also has those rope spiderweb climbers that seem to be ubiquitous at the nicer playgrounds, and lots of musical noisemakers. I understand that the playground was designed pursuant to ADA standards for play spaces appropriate for children on the autism spectrum, and it’s really geared toward a multi-sensory experience. The playground is also fully enclosed, which is not particularly important for me (I stay close to Oliver as we explore) but might be relevant to parents of slightly older kids.
After we tired out at the north area, we checked out the playground in the west area. It’s older, but still a lot of fun—some challenging climbing equipment, a tall ladder (which Oliver loved but which made me more than a little nervous), and several fast slides.
Here’s a map to the park: Blandair Regional Park
Admission is free, and the park is generally open from 7am until sunset.
Oliver at the north area playground of Blandair Regional Park
