West Park

Often times, a park either caters just to kids with playgrounds and swings galore, or it’s «boring» and is more popular with adults (trees, trails, nature, etc.) I think anyone can find enjoyment at West Park!
For the kids (and kids at heart), there’s a waterfall/​splash area to cool off in the summer, a silo-​style slide, and a bungee cord climbing web. With a shelter, restrooms, and picnic benches, you can easily make an afternoon of it. Not to mention they host camping nights, food trucks, and more summer festivities. In the winter months, climb to the top of the giant hill for some serious sledding fun.
I find the large manmade lake to be quite peaceful. With a sturdy boardwalk, you can view the ducks, geese, and other creatures that call the lily pads home from a number of vantage points. A great place to feed the ducks and fish, too! One of my favorite past times as a kid.

Past through this place and thought why not go for a nice walk at the park. It was a beautiful Sunday and the park was filled with bbq parties and happy children. This park is huge and so clean! My bubs enjoyed rolling all over the majestic green grasses and duck watching. The playground here is awesome looking. The slides look so fun and they have a little water fountain that shoots out for the kids to get and cool off. This place is filled with lots of nature trails and enjoyed climbing on some rock boulders to get to the top and give a nice 360 view of all the nature that Carmel has to offer. By far one of the nicest parks I ever been too. I think I want to move to Carmel because of this park lol I totally can picture bringing my future non existing children to this park every week!

Thank you Unilocal for seriously helping me find shoot locations. This is a truly beautiful park. My time there this morning had two parts. A shoot and play time with my (nearly) three year old nephew.
So it is definitely in Carmel. Not the border, but deep in. So it took longer to get there than I anticipated. I got there at like7:45am. There were people exercising including someone with a personal trainer who was utilizing the hill. I stayed away from that person accordingly, because I was not going to interrupt what someone was paying — no doubt — good money for.
The park has multiple areas. The hill, the swings, the trails, the flower trails/​fields, the Splash area, the gazebos/​meeting areas, and the main kid area
The splash area spritzers are on a timer. I was standing under one talking to my sister — asking what her ETA was — and they went off on me. Whoopsies!
The trails I went by were super nice. I love the bridges over the water and appreciate they aren’t straight, but curve. They might err on the side of being boardwalks versus bridges.
Lots of dogs and I would agree the trails are dog friendly.
There’s the trails that go by the water. Some trails by the swings that go through flowers. And more woodsy trails too.
Great for photos.
My nephew is terrified of getting wet (idk…) so we avoided the splash area. So all I can say is that it’s on a timer and you can jump over the stream.
There are rocking horsey things that are the perfect size for toddlers.
The giant rope thing? Is huge. I don’t think very many little kids could fully appreciate that. But there are little kid friendly things besides the horses and splash pad (for those who aren’t afraid) such as the cool tractor toy. It has a wheel, «brake», tunnels through the wheels, a seat, gears to play with, and a double slide — for those of us who like to hold hands going down.
The silo slide was a bit of a let down… It doesn’t slide well… You kind of stick to it. I had to pick my feet up and allow my silk and sequin dress to slide me down instead.
What else?
The free library had stuff in it. Didn’t look, but that was cool.
I think that’s about it.

Two things make this park stand out from the other Carmel parks: the gigantic silo-​looking slide and the splash pad area.
The slide is amazing, and so big that you can see it from 116^th street as you’re driving by.
The splash pad has two shower-​like nozzles that spray water, and the water then trickles down into a big wading area that is perfect to plop down little babies to splash in the calm water. Farther down the wading pool it gets a little deeper (like ankle-​deep), but it’s still the perfect setup to get wet and cool, but stay safe.
Other things this park has: lots of swings, a tractor-​themed play set, a rope climbing structure, and some tunnels that, at first glance look like water drainage pipes, but no – kids can climb through them! (Well, my kid did. I’m almost positive that’s what they’re there for.) There’s also a lake with a long dock where you can fish, a Little Free Library, an area with picnic benches … there’s so much here that I feel like I’m missing something!

This is our go-​to park. My stepdaughters absolutely LOVE it here! The playground is thoughtfully designed to accommodate the littlest toddler to the largest family. Plenty of room for everyone!
In summer, it has a waterpark-​style waterfall and a imitation creek for children to get their feet wet. The playground includes a bungee cord climbing web, see-​saw, slides, swings, tire swings, and lots of green grass! We have flown kites and went on nature walks with the kids.
In winter, there’s a large hill that’s great for sledding. I can’t wait for snow so we can get the sleds out of storage!
Bathrooms are clean and close by. Covered picnic tables for a party of cookout. So get outta the house and head on over for a stroll!

It’s a great place for whole family and it’s perfect for activities like biking, jogging, walking or just hanging out. There is small hill where kids would love to climb.
I enjoy huge clear and open space.

Another great Green place with pathways that are ideal for dog walking or running. The trails wind through the park around hills and large grass fields back through the back woods and around a small pond that is gorgeous for observing the geese and fish.
The sledding hill is great in the winter but expcect long lines as it is a popular park!

Just west of Coxhall is another great park on the north side, West Park.
This park belongs to Carmel-​Clay Parks & Recreation and as such, more oriented toward family outings.
West has a preserved wetlands area with wood walkways along the perimeter, plenty of walking trails (2.5 miles), a sledding hill, water feature/​spray park for the kiddos, playground, picnic shelters and lots of wide open spaces.
My favorite feature here, though, is the ground level canine water fountain.