Mason District Park (Annandale, VA)

On a blustery election day, after voting, I took the kids out to check out a new park.  I had plans to visit somewhere in Arlington, but various circumstances conspired and led us to Mason District Park in Annandale.

The park is a sprawling 121 acres, located off of Columbia Pike.  It has hiking/walking trails, tennis courts, basketball courts, and playing fields, but we were there to check out the playground.  There are actually two playgrounds, but I will start with the bigger and better one.

This playground, best suited for older kids, is a short walk from the parking lots.  When you enter the park grounds, turn to the left and you will see a parking lot which is the closest access point to this playground, via a paved trail.

The paved trail is a circular loop around a marshy area and makes a good bike riding loop (it does have a little incline in places).

The playground area has the following features:

Large Play Structure

Musical “Instruments”

Climbing Wall/Tower/Fort Thingee

Swings

Two regular, two “bucket/baby”.   These swings were all seated a little higher off the ground than usual.

This play area was a lot of fun for my kids.  They would run around on the various equipment, then take a break and ride a loop or two around the marsh/pond. We also spotted an interesting bird of prey (some kind of hawk, maybe?) on one of the poles near the playground.  Mason District is a great area for nature walks/wildlife spotting.

We arrived mid-afternoon and the playground seemed very shady.  I’m not sure how it is in the morning, but appears like it might be a shady option.  Less desirable on a cold day, but good for warm weather.

There is another playground, designated as Tot Lot at the park.  This play area is closer to the bathrooms.   I have to say, it was pretty underwhelming.

The biggest asset of this playground is it appears to be very shady and is closer to the bathrooms.

Overall, we found Mason District a fun outdoor playground and would recommend it for preschool and school-aged children.