Chutes + Ladders - A Playground Review


Welcome to the fifth Chutes + Ladders blog post! My husband and I decided to try to visit each and every single park in the city of Aurora, Colorado! Since we are making the effort to do that, I figure why not go a step further and review them to hopefully spread the word on our parks and inform other people about amenities/features available.

Five colorful circular icons representing playground amenities: accessibility, shade, bathroom, tables and chairs, and variety for play.

Altura Park

Location


Altura Park is located right behind Altura Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado. The address, according to the Aurora government's website is 15100 East 17th Avenue. It features, again, according to the website, 3.9 acres, baseball / softball backstop, playground at elementary school. Your map app should take you near the field that is a majority of the park, and that's where the sign for the park is, which is clearly displayed near the road. We ended up parking in the school parking lot because school's out for summer, but I would not recommend doing that while school is in session.

Accessibility


The park is not accessible from the road. You would have to go to the elementary school and follow the paved paths back towards the playground.


The playground was not built with accessibility in mind.

Shade


There is zero shade on the playground and no trees near it to provide temporary shade depending on the time of day.

Bathroom


There are no bathrooms within the park that you can use.

Tables + Chairs


There are a few concrete tables with benches near one of the doors into the elementary school, but I don't think they are technically part of the public park, so I did not include them.

Variety for Play


This playground had several different styles of slides, a lot of different climbing equipment, balancing areas, and more. There was an interesting piece of equipment that involved a concave rope net of sorts, but you could also climb up these pillars on the sides. I've never seen one that like that before, so that was cool.

Colorful playground with blue metal frame, dual tan slides, spiral blue slide, and wood chip ground cover in suburban park.
Colorful blue and red playground equipment with climbing structures on wood chip ground in a sunny park.
Blue rope climbing structure on a playground with sandy ground, green grass, and residential homes in the background.
Blue and red playground equipment with slides and climbing structures on wood chip ground in a sunny park.
Colorful blue and red playground equipment with monkey bars and climbing structures on wood chip ground.
Colorful playground equipment with climbing net, tire swing, and slides on wood chip ground at a school recess area.

Bonus: Extra Playground!


Since this playground is located at Altura Elementary School, it may come as no surprise that there's another playground kids can play on (as long as school is not in session). Honestly, the other one is way more cool than the public one, and it has a plethora of swings. We had a lot more fun on the school's actual playground than the one that belongs to the park.

Colorful playground equipment with slides and climbing structures in an empty school parking lot surrounded by trees.
Colorful yellow swing set on wood chip playground with play structure and trees under blue sky.

Overall Vibes


I think to say that this public park has a playground is greatly misleading. The playground is definitely shared with the school, and they should keep it as such for the safety of the kids. Now, we absolutely will take our daughter to elementary school playgrounds to play when school is out, but I just feel it's not the same as saying a public park has one.