Powhatan Springs / Children’s Rain Garden (22205)

Powhatan Springs Park

The Review:

While mulling over the indoor options for a rainy day, I remembered the Children’s Rain Garden at Powhatan Springs and decided to take Adam over for a little outdoor fun on a dreary day.

The garden was designed to provide a children’s learning experience in a bioretention area.   From the County website:

Bioretention is a means of cleansing stormwater runoff through a man-made wetlands or “rain garden.”   The flow and collection of rainwater is exposed and animated to further emphasize collection and placement of water into the bioretention system. The system contains several interactive components that function as stormwater collection devices and also provide interactive fun for children.

For us, the park meant a chance to splash and play outside.   It started in the parking lot before we even got to the actual garden.

Once inside the garden, we had fun checking out all the places water accumulated.

There is a pump in the center of the garden, but unfortunately, it wasn’t working when we visited.

The water travels through the wetlands in the center, and then downhill to the creek below.   We followed the storm drain to the creek.

It was disappointing to find the creekbed littered with trash (my photos were blurry and didn’t turn out).

However, we found fun walking in the storm drain and of course splashing.

Adam had fun running around, exploring the space, getting progressively wetter.

The other highlight of Powhatan Park is the skate park.   It is obviously closed on a rainy days, but could be a fun destination if you have little ones who want to watch or older ones who like to skate.

Powhatan Springs Park is equipped with a bathroom, which is a nice feature.  If you bring your young ones, I recommend going on a day with a light to steady drizzle and plan on bringing dry clothes and perhaps a towel.   Because if your kids are anything like mine, no matter how many rainjackets and umbrellas you deploy, they will come home soaking wet.

Find more parks by visiting my main Arlington Parks & Playgrounds page.