Cabin John Regional Park

Cabin John Regional Park

 

Location:
7400 Tuckerman Ln, Rockville, MD 20852

Park Website

My Opinion:

Features:

This playground has it all.  Slides, swings, and lots of things to climb on.  The closest area to the parking lot has a nice toddler play area with train cars to climb through.  Moving around in a circle, the play areas get progressively bigger, so there is really something here for any age child.  Both of my kids where excited about the big slides and enjoyed climbing up to a balcony on the big kid playground and then navigating their way through tubes and over bridges.  The entire playground is big enough that it got a little tricky keeping track of where they were.  Both of them agreeing to stick to one area at a time helped.

What's Unique:

The most popular aspect of the park is probably the miniature train ride.  The train leaves the station every half hour and takes a relaxing fifteen minute ride through the wooded areas of the park.  On nice weekends, every seat fills up, so it's worth waiting in line to board.  If you show up right before the train is scheduled to leave, chances are you won't get a seat and end up waiting a half hour for the next ride.  I'd suggest choosing a car near the back of the train.  Even though it looks like an old time steam engine, there's a gasoline engine under the hood.  If you're tempted to sit up front thinking you have a better view, the fumes will have you wondering the the engineer is really just mowing the lawn.

The park also includes indoor tennis, an indoor ice skating rink, lots of trails, a nature center an amphitheater, and campground. Check their website for details.

Standouts on the playground include this little contraption.  The blue part on top spins, and it's at a slight angle so a rider's weight helps keep it spinning.  The label says ages 5-12, but I'm convinced they put this in for the parents.  Kids will get a kick out of hanging on to the ring as you give it a spin, but don't let them have all the fun.  Get a running start and grab on.  You'll feel like Peter Pan as the centrifugal force pulls your feet outward, and you'll be surprised at how long you can keep yourself spinning.

One of the smaller play areas has the maze-like structure.  I'm always surprised at how long kids can entertain themselves in one of those plastic playhouses, going in and out of the doors and peeking out the windows.  These little cubes with all their doors and windows multiplies the fun.

This one brought my four year old running from the other side of the playground.  He's totally into construction equipment, so he had a blast climbing all over this and pretending to make it go.

Kids also thought these little climbing blocks were fun and had a good time dropping down into the "trap door."  It seems like kids are savvy enough to recognize the same old same old, so even something as simple as blocks to climb on stands out when it's something they don't see every day.

I thought this climbing bridge was pretty cool to.  These days, most playgrounds seem to have some sort of climbing wall, but being able to climb along the length of this made climbing more fun, and pretending there was actually water under the bridge (with alligators!) made things more interesting too.

Restrooms:Yes

Several single stall restrooms are very close to the playground.  Each has a Vacant/Occupied slide lock on the door.  This makes it a little easier for a family trip to the restrooms.  But these facilities out in mother nature... when we stopped by they were less than perfectly clean and a couple bugs had found their way inside.

Sun/Shade: Partial sun.  There are many large trees surrounding the playground, and it covers enough area that at any time during the day there should be some part of the playground that is shaded.

Nearby:

Take a left out of the park onto Tuckerman and there's a small shopping plaza with a CVS and restaurants just a minute down the road.  From there a right on Seven Locks Road will get you to a McDonald's. 
A right out of the park, and then another right onto Westlake Drive will take you to Montgomery Mall as well as other plazas with restaurants.