Craig Elementary School, Niskayuna, NY

Craig Elementary School, Niskayuna, NY

The physical location:
2566 Balltown Rd/146
Right by the Niskayuna Soccer Park

The setting:
The school is right on 146 but the playground is around the back of the school which is nice. There are a couple of basketball hoops and big fields here. The soccer complex is next door as well and we saw some people using the fields. I am not sure how parking is if there is a tournament as when we went there were no games in progress. No bathrooms, 3 picnic tables and a few benches. Some nice shade in the evening from a tree at the edge of the area.

The people: There were some tweens that wandered over from the soccer fields to use the swings and discuss Instagram but they were fine. There were two other families there when we were there and they were fine but no discussion between us and the kids didn't play together either for whatever reason.

The equipment:
This is an interesting playground with a lot going on! The whole thing is wood chips and has a few areas to discuss. There were nice swings that looked rather new. There are two "spider web" climbing structures. My son has been on things like this before but these had the wires set far apart and so he couldn't get very far into it. It's a good size for elementary-middle school age though. There is a metal two sided climbing wall that was very challenging. It goes very high and my son was only able to make it up part way (which was good for my anxiety level). The underside of it had some holds as well and I imagine that side would be very challenging.

The structure is made up of a variety of climbing and balancing pieces along with slides. The tallest part is reachable by two climbing walls, steep vertical plastic steps (the red ones in the picture almost shaped like a cone or skyscraper) climbing up the side of the "boulder" or up the standard steps. There are two slides from the same platform at the top of this. The climbing wall style is easier than the molded plastic ones I have seen in the past. This taller part connects to a lower portion via the "boulder". Once on the lower area you can monkey across the suspended platforms to a roller bar slide or traverse various balance and upper body structures. There are monkey bars, rings, chain grids to climb, zip line, etc.

Set apart from the structure are some small spinning and seesaw equipment pieces. All are modern and unique! There is also a smaller structure which would be good for toddler age. It has a slide (shown in the forefront of the top picture), wheels to turn, the basics. Right next to that is a cute train with two "cars" that my son loved. He liked sitting at the table in one of the cars and of course driving the train.

The verdict:
We would come back here but I would try to avoid soccer times. My daughters hands were already sore from her monkey bar adventures at another playground so she wasn't really into this one today but I think she would be on another day. My son loved this playground, especially the roller slide. It is only about a 1.5 miles or so from Hillside so I think we would probably spend some time at both to keep things fresh. If your kids like the game of "you have to make it around this whole thing without touching the lava (aka woodchips)" than this park is great as a large part of it connects if you can traverse all the obstacles. Next time we go I will take pictures of the toddler structure and train.