Get Wet and Wild at Triassic Playground

Editor’s Note: This look at Triassic Playground in Queens is part of an occasional series reviewing parks and playgrounds in the NYC area.

There is nothing better to do on a hot summer day than put your kids in their bathing suits and head out to a park to play in the water. Not wanting to brave the Thunderdome-like atmosphere at DUMBO’s Pier 6, we instead went to the Triassic Playground in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens.

My kids call Triassic Playground “the alligator park” because the slide looks like an alligator. And I guess alligators could come up through the tall marsh that surrounds Meadow Lake, which forms one boundary to the playground (Jewel Avenue and the Van Wyck are on the other sides).

Even without the water area, which is designed like an oasis with palm trees and plenty of room for water balloon fights, the Triassic Playground is fun. They have two sets of swings and there are three sets of climbing and sliding areas: one for smaller children and the other two for slightly older kids. My son likes to take his scooter on the one that is basically a long ramp and scoot all the way down. He’s going all Led Zeppelin, driving motorcycles inside the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles, and I’m having a heart attack.

It’s a nice park, never too crowded and the breeze off the water is really nice.

Triassic Playground features

Shade – Not so much

Water feature – Yes, a large area in the middle of the park with fake palm trees that water shoots out of and fountains that shoot from the ground.

Bathrooms – Yes

Sand – No

Grass – Very little in the playground itself, but the park is surrounded by grass and the banks of Meadow Lake.

Photos: Niel Vuolo