25555 Alicia Pkwy, Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Hours: Monday-Friday (Open 24 hours)
Restrooms? Yes. Located above the playground. Incredibly nice and clean
Playground Surface: Rubber and sand
Parking Lot? Yes. Big dedicated parking lot. Little bit of a walk to the playground
Gated/Fenced? No
Overview
In the lovely city of Laguna Hills, sits a fabulous park and playground that the little Dino lovers are sure to be enthralled by. “Dinosaur Park” or “Prehistoric Playground” is a paleo-adventure playground that was created with the help of a research and design team who were aided by a Paleontologist. The focale point of the playground is a 33 foot Bowhead Whale Skeleton for kids to climb and play on and represents a similar fossil unearthed at this very site.
The playground contains both real and replica fossils. Altogether, there are 25 prehistoric animals that are represented at the prehistoric playground. For those craving more knowledge, head across the street to the Community Center to check out their intriguing fossil exhibit. This park is absolutely huge, with tons of lawn space, beautiful grounds and numerous ball fields. The Prehistoric Playground at Laguna Hills Community Park makes for a great time with the family and is extremely popular for Birthday Parties and other events as well.
Features
Dinosaur and Fossil themed playground
Dinosaur Play Area (Kids Ages 5-12 Years Old)
- Bowhead Whale Skeleton play structure
- Metal race slide
- Hadrosaur fossil replica etched into the bridge wall, underneath the bridge and next to the metal slide
- 2 slides including a tunnel slide and spiral slide
- Metal cargo net climber, monkey bars, roller coaster ladder climber, 2 tunnel crawlers and other climbing aparatuses
- 2 bench swings
Toddler Play Area (Kids Ages 2-5 Years Old)
- Small Clubhouse with tunnel slide
- Jeep play structure and multiple concrete Turtle play structures
- Dinosaur spring jumper
- Baby (bucket) swing
Other Amenities
- Amazing Community Center that features a fossil exhibit, gymnasium and rotating art galleries among other things.
- Awesome, artificial turf baseball field
- Multiple baseball fields and huge soccer field
- Some of the nicest restrooms I have seen at any park
- Walking path, garden area and absolutely beautiful park grounds
- Tons of lawn space
Scout’s Story
The last few weeks have been rather fun for my wife, our daughter Scout, and I. Scout was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 3 and 1/2 months ago and has been fighting ever since. The last few months have been incredibly hard and it has become inherently harder to find ways to have Scout do normal kid things. Scout’s last cycle of chemo ended almost exactly one month ago and we are now waiting for Scout to have P.E.T scans at Children’s Hospital in nine days. The P.E.T scans should tell us what is happening with the tumors in Scout’s liver and rectum and will dictate Scouts next steps in treatment.
In the meantime, Scouts counts have risen enough since chemo that we have recently felt comfortable enough to take her to parks and to do some things outside. It has been a bit tough but we are doing our best to get her outside to play, while also being very careful about having Scout not be in contact with others. This day would be no different than the days in previous weeks that we visited parks. We would start very early and if we felt there were too many people at our destination, we would merely drive to another spot.
Scout’s Day at Dinosaur Park
Our first stop on this amazing day would be “Dinosaur Park” in the amazing Community of Laguna Hills. We always love visiting this area and we were excited to bring Scout to this fabulous playground. After climbing around on the massive Whale Skeleton, Scout talked her mom into taking her down the metal slide more times than I could possibly count.
One of the toughest parts about visiting the Prehistoric Playground, was the amount of sand here, including at the bottom of the slide. Avoiding parks with sand has been a must for us, but I was unaware of how much sand this playground had before we visited. As Scout continues cancer treatment, she lives with a central line in her chest and getting sand or anything else in that area could cause an infection. As Scout slid down the slide, my wife would quickly pick her up before she hit the sandy ground. We navigated the rest of the playground as safely as possible, with Scout thoroughly enjoying the Dinosaur spring jumper and the toddler play area.
We briefly made our way over to the bigger kids playground and helped Scout check it out, but it was still a bit advanced for her 18 month old body. Before heading over to the Community Center, Scout followed me to the baseball field with artificial turf behind the playground. This field is spectacular. I had my glove with me and Scout ran across the field with her mom, throwing the ball every few seconds.
This was almost assuredly the highlight of my day. Scout ran back and forth, giggling uncontrollably as her ever present smile lit up the entire field. Once again, we felt so lucky to have had this morning, making these amazing memories with Scout.
December 3, 2023
