St. Mary's Playground — Attraction in San Francisco

This playground is great for kids 3 and under. It's okay for kids older than that. The main equipment is basically one long, elevated platform with little "towers" every 30 ft or so that get progressively higher off the ground with a covered slide at the end. Each tower has different ways to climb up/down it like rope ladders, poles, etc. There is a semi-circle device that is basically a modern version of a teeter totter and probably was once pretty great, but it's so weathered and worn that there is too much friction for it to be much fun for any kid under about 10 (and how many kids that age come here?!). There is a zip line, though it's the sanitized version where it's on a metal track and very short with hardly any elevation change so pretty lackluster. There are toddler/baby swings as well as 2 regular swings and a merry-go-round with rope tower; all pretty standard playground stiff. There is a little climbing wall that uses actual faux rock instead of holds, but I have no idea who the target audience is because it's way too hard for any kid who would be of the age that they would be coming to this program.

Finally, this playground has an interesting vibe because it's buried behind houses and hence removed from a road which makes it somewhat peaceful. It's also basically built into the side of a steep hill, so one side effectively has a wall of earth (with lots of plants and stairs up to the Rec Center).

Overall, this is a pretty average park in a neighborhood, St. Mary's Park, that not many people visit or know about, so worth checking out if you're not from the immediate area as a way to try a new playground...

Good playground with a huge structure and lots of activities covering a good age range. Bathrooms available most of the time at the rec center just up the hill. Occasional drainage problems from problematic landscaping design choices, but nothing serious. Supports a good age range.

Fenced all around, but there are a lot of easily-opened gates at different elevation levels and some vision blockers, so maintaining a perimeter around a group of kids requires several adults -- don't expect to be able to supervise from a single...

Now I know what you're thinking: why is the creepy man with the beard avatar reviewing a playground? The answer is that I'm a sucker for virtual internet points (I'm almost a Google Level 3 Guide!) and I have no shame.

Anyway, I've been here twice while babysitting my friends' toddler and he just f@#$ing loved it, so I'm passing along what I assume would be his 4 star rating. Could have gotten 5 stars if there had been more random garbage for him to attempt to put in his mouth, but you can't...