Palisades Recreation Center & Playground — Attraction in Washington

This is one of the best recreation centers in DC. I write this review with much hesitation in knowing it could fill up with visitors, which is a huge negative to me. But I just feel compelled to share my love for this place!

The parking lot is very small and often fills up. The problem is that everyone wants to go here at the exact same time for some reason. It's not a big deal if the lot fills up, however, because you can park in the surrounding neighborhoods. You can even park on the other side of Reno Road and enjoy a beautiful walk along a trail to the Rec center. If you are someone who has trouble parking, however, maybe this isn't for you.

This wall of text lists everything that the rec center has: woodland trails with deer and wild life, views of the Potomac River Valley that extend to Virginia, tennis courts, skate park, batting cages, golf practice tee area made with turf, a grass softball field, grassy tree covered picnic tables, gardens with food and flowers, a turf soccer field, outdoor basketball, indoor basketball in a beautiful half court gym, indoor tennis if the gym is converted for it (elderly people play something called pickle ball which is like tennis but with a really slow ball), and a kids park with everything from climbing structures to swings to slides to a spray park with a small water slide. Inside the rec center there is also a foosball table, kitchen area, workout gym that is free for DC residents, a multipurpose room that is beautiful and has trophy/display cases showing artifacts recovered from the park, and plenty of equipment that can be checked out, as well as new and clean restrooms and water fountains. It is the most complete park in the city, in my opinion. It's not lacking for anything I can think of. There is even a weird hippie art thing next door to the park called the Glass Forest, and it has deer in it. It's creepy and cool at the same time.

The first thing people think of here is the kids park. It can get very crowded and some of the people tend to leave more trash than others. The other negative that I have a big problem with is the rec center workers like to drive their cars up the pathways for no reason whatsoever, just to avoid walking 20 feet up the hill to the rec center from the parking lot. It's dangerous. But that's not going to spoil this amazing place for me.

Whether it's hot or cold, there's always something to do here.

Just a note: it took me a long time to understand how this place works. I can sum it up as, this was a favorite for elderly residents of the Palisades and they supported it for years and might have taken part in renovations that were recently completed. So everything is setup with old people first in mind. I found that frustrating at first because there were just a few things that didn't make sense to me, but now that I kind of have the right mindset for why the basketball court is reserved for elderly pickle ball tournaments from 9am-1pm some days in prime kids play time, it makes sense. That's probably just a...

Nice playground with connected splash pad. Great stuff for older kids. Lots of climbing options; big, steep slides, and a couple swings. The ground cover is nice artificial rubber turf with various mounds and hills, all in solid condition. Plenty of space for kids to run around. The park is well shaded too, which is nice in the summer heat.

Overall, the equipment is in good condition, but a few things could use attention. When we were there, the one big, twisting slide was broken, as were a swing and some elements of the splash pad.

The concrete surface of the splash pad is pretty rough to have a water slide. Someone has placed a shower mat at the bottom of the slide, which works to stop kids relatively well, but it's not ideal.

There's also a few adult exercise equipment inside the play area, which is interesting. I guess parents could get some reps in while the kids play if they wanted to?

Biggest complaint is that the options for kids under 4 are limited, and the climbing equipment for older kids is all readily accessible to little ones - meaning parents with small kids have to be on...

Along the Potomac River northwest of Georgetown is a close-knit community called The Palisades. This is its recreation center. There's a small parking lot in the front and trails that lead to an actual recreation center, fields and a playground that doubles as a splash park in the summer.

My four-year-old daughter loved the playground. It's modeled after an Indigenous American village along the Potomac River with slides, etc. For being in a wealthy neighborhood, it's a little run down, but still a lot of fun.

If you like quirky art, take the small dirt path to the right when facing the parking lot. Walk a few yards to a small opening in the forest to find the "Glass Forest" with art hanging on the trees. It's a little creepy, but...