Anne O'C. Albrecht Nature Playscape Takeaway. St. Louis's Best Playground Without A Playground. A series of exhibits built with sand, stumps, trees, water, and grass. A place for your imagination to run wild within a defined play space. Bring friends to make it an A+ experience.
Better in the summer when there's running water, it's Playground Complete, using only objects and concepts you'd find in nature. Relatively unknown in the middle of Forest Park, you should add the Playscape to your park itinerary.
There are year-round bathrooms and picnic tables available. Parking can be tight in the lot, but it's available on the street. It's Forest Park's hidden gem.
Anne O'C. Albrecht Nature Playscape Experience Summary
We went to the Nature Playscape and Forest Park over the weekend. It was the second and first time we'd been there in about three years.
You'll find the Playscape in Forest Park north of 64 near the south Zoo entrance. It's not a place we ever naturally go by, so we haven't been there much. But it's a great little play space.
Without any typical playground apparatus, kids have to use their imagination to play on the stumps, logs, sand, and trees. I'm sure my kids could spend an hour here without getting bored, making it Playground Complete. If you bring friends, the group can stretch their time there for a few hours.
Nothing about it stands out as truly crazy or unique. It's more the collection of small details and play areas that contribute to the experience.
In the summertime, they have a water feature that spans up and down the park's center, maybe 50 yards. It starts up top and then, through a series of waterfalls, goes down the center of the playscape. The kids can jump from rock to rock over the water, take their shoes off, and get in the water.
The water's off in the wintertime, but kids can still climb up and down the rocks. That's the truly unique aspect of it. Otherwise, it's just a series of small play areas with stones, logs, stumps, and sand. The kids have to make of it as they will, and they always make something of it.
Whether they turn a log into a cave, a hideout, or a series of stumps into a maze, the kids can let their imagination take over and figure out how to make something interesting.
Anne O'C. Albrecht Nature Playscape Playground Breakdown
The Playscape is a different kind of park.
A Playground Complete park without a slide or jungle gym is pretty impressive. When you compare it to something like the
My kids really love the elongated waterfall in both the smaller and winter. The summer is a bit better, but bring a towel for when they get wet playing it.
The closest thing the Playscape has to a "main area" is a big log near a bog and a lookout in the park's northeast corner. The log is big enough for several big kids to play on or under at the same time. It's close to the bog, which acts as another hideout, a hollow log for little kids, and a sandbox.
The perimeter of the sandbox is a tightrope or an obstacle course. The lookout is a base for adults, and the whole area has small things to run around on.
The kids also like the grass/flower maze in the summertime when it's grown out. It's much easier to solve in the winter when you can see.
If you bring friends, as we've done both times, they can have even more fun, making their adventures up as they go.
All in all, I would consider the Playscape on par with the more well-known Wonderland Playground on the north side of Forest Park. If you live closer to the Playscape, I could see adding it to the regular rotation.
It's probably the hidden gem of Forest Park.
Anne O'C. Albrecht Nature Playscape Amenities And Miscellaneous
There are year-round bathrooms near the parking lot on the southwest side of the park by the parking lot. It saved me a lot of driving.
Right next to the bathrooms are a series of picnic tables with awnings. We had a snack here, but I saw a family having lunch together while we were playing. They are solid construction and could serve as a base for a small party.
Parking At Anne O'C. Albrecht Nature Playscape
The parking lot is kind of wonky. There may be room for 20 cars, but it's a tight fit. In the summer, when it was busy, we barely got in. It was less packed now in the early spring and late winter. There's additional parking on the north side of the park along the street, but I'm not exactly sure how to get to it. You'll have to loop around a good part of Forest Park to end up back there.
Anne O'C. Albrecht Nature Playscape Receipt
