Union Park Historic Rocket Slide — Attraction in Des Moines

What a blast from the past! I used to go on this slide when I was a kid and it’s great to see it has been refurbished and made even better for years to come. I’m an adult now, but getting on the slide (which was so fast by the way) and feeling the rush of going down brought back so much joy to myself I could help but be childlike and run right back up to do it again. Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in saving and giving life to this Des Moines staple.

There are quotes on the benches and they’re incredibly inspiring, you’ll also find informative plaques teaching the history of the rocket slide which helped me appreciate the playground even more!

To...

Union park is a large park with several different sets of play equipment. The rockt slide is actually several different slides in one, with smaller slides for small children, going up to the actual rocket slide for bigger kids.

The carousel here is also very nice for kids. The prices are good, and it doesn't move too fast even for small children, though the music on it can be a bit loud.

The only real downside to this park, in my opinion, is that their parking situation isn't very good during events. The lot is fairly small, and if there's a lot of people you often have to park pretty far from the play...

Union Park is a very nice park with plenty to do for children.

I counted 3 different playground areas including the famous Rocket Slide, two swing sets (one for small children), the new splash pad, and a tennis court all in one area.

The reason it gets four stars is because the ground was covered in litter. If they kept up on keeping the park clean it would easily get 5 stars. But of course I also can't fault the park crew, because they can't control how dirty and disrespectful some of the park...