Overall, this is a nice park with a good number of picnic tables, a splash pad that's great for…read moresummer, decent restrooms, and a small playground. The walking trails were the highlight well-maintained, shaded, and surrounded by dense trees.it's clean, peaceful, and a pleasant place to spend a few hours outdoors.

I know why the blue left, and the red told me why it was leaving, but why did the Greenleaf?…read more This lovely park in the north of Charlottesville also contains one of my favorite YMCA locations in the country - so it's a great park for more than one reason. Definitely one of the best recreational areas of a lovely town.

Great paved path, well maintained, that runs along the river. Couple of notes that they have some…read moreoff leash areas for dogs and many owners allowed their dogs to approach our without recall. Additionally there are some homeless encampments along the path.

Fabulous trail! Quite busy even on Thanksgiving but we found parking quickly! The wonderful part is…read morethat it rained heavily the evening and morning for our hike. The trail is made of asphalt so easy assess for handicap and no muddy paws

It's a great park, lots of fun for the kids even teenagers. Only problem we had was it's a public…read morearea and the pavilion is free to the public and the other people that were there were mean to my 1 year old daughter. No one wanted to share the swings, they hogged literally almost everything there. So she had to just enjoy herself running around the park in the grassy area. I wish it didn't have such nasty people because it's amazing to be free. I gave it two stars only because of the people that were being mean to my daughter.

This is a nice splash pad/park combo. Both areas are clean…read moreand well maintained. The splash pad has several fun features for kids and my 10 month old enjoyed it as well. There is a pavilion with picnic benches under it beside the park as well as a large grassy area offering ample sitting room. There are 2 separate playgrounds, one for 5 and under and one for the older kids. Just be careful when kids go back and forth from splash pad to playground because I have heard a couple stories of children slipping on the metal playground structures when wet, which could obviously be dangerous. One thing I do like about the playground is that the ground is the soft rubbery stuff and not pebbles or mulch, so my little one can crawl around as well. One thing that would make the playground better is if it was covered. Unless it's overcast or evening, the structures probably get too hot to use during the summer. Overall a very nice and fun place for the kids to burn some energy!

I love this park! On nice days I often walk over here after visiting the central library. My family…read morecalls it the "dizzy park" because so many things here spin around. Pros: small, contained park with plenty of shade and benches around the perimeter. The playground structure is fairly new and well maintained. There is also a small waterfall fountain that's on in the summer months that's perfect for small toddlers to play in. Cons: tiny public parking lot, no public restroom, the higher slide could do with more of a railing around the platform, and the surrounding pre schools use the park around 11:30am on weekdays so it gets very crowded at that time.

It was a tiny park. Two play areas for children of varying ages, swings, see-saw for three, and…read moreplenty of benches for parents around the perimeter. There were only four other children at the park which has its pro's and con's. The good thing is there weren't so many kids, that you couldn't see pass the throng to find your own. The bad part is they were all boys and not interested in playing with my hyper-friendly little girl . . . at least I hope that's why they ignored her completely. I was glad to come to the park because we'd passed it so many times, I was equally happy to leave. Perhaps if I had planned a play date with another kid, it would have been different. Nutshell: this isn't the place for a kiddie connection.

We absolutely loved our visit to the Virginia Discovery Museum!…read more It looks a bit small and dinky from the outside, but my children and their cousins, ages 4 - 9, played non-stop for three hours. While most children's museums are multi levels, this is more like a giant long maze, making exploring each room feel like a treasure hunt. Favorite spots included the authentic log cabin complete with life size baby crib and a little play town with cafe, post office, and nature playground. There were lot of places for parents to sit and the whole museum felt relatively low key. The front desk was super nice and reminded us many times that we could come and go as we pleased throughout the day. Since we are American Children's Museum members we got free admission which was a huge added perk. Love being able to learn, explore, and play with my littles all around the US.

Great hands on play for your kids!…read more We were in the area and since it was hot we wanted an indoor activity for our kids. The museum recommends 8 and under. Our kids are 8, 7 and 5. The website does a great job of explaining where to park. We followed our gps and it took us the emergency exit entrance. The entrance is right on the main brick road. The museum will also validate your pass so parking is free. Entering was easy and we let the kids loose. We spent about 2 hours but they could have easily stayed longer. They do not allow food in the museum but you can come and go as you please. Great experience to let your kids explore.

Disappointing nature trail. We made it barely over a mile before we had to turnaround due to downed…read moretree, and there were several downed trees along the trail that made the trail difficult to navigate. Didn't find it well maintained either way.

Very big, clean park! My husband and I were in town with our dogs to go hiking and stopped in here…read moreone morning after grabbing coffee to walk the nature trail.

Our Charlottesville son has come here with his two young sons (5 and nearly 4 years of age) …read more Trails, marked by colors (eg, Red Trail, Blue Trail, etc.) are easy enough for the little guys & certainly easy enough for us as well. They are well maintained, go uphill in some areas, flat in others, skirt a small creek, a large pond with turtles, fish, ducks & geese, lots of marked trees & meadows, all good distractions for big & little hikers.

I was heretofore unfamiliar with this tract of land despite having spent plenty of time in the…read morearea. It seems I missed out, as a splendid variety of experiences were available for free. Traversing an overlook over the river, I went down into a valley, spotting majestic birds of prey, a large fish, energetic baby turtles, singing frogs, and a snake, all spotted in less than an hour. As wildlife preserves go, this one had a lot of wildlife. Conditions vary of course, but there were a couple more hours worth of trails I didn't get to. Near the entrance were some buildings, including a water station and primitive bathrooms. People seemed to come for a variety of reasons.

One of our favorite parks to visit and walk at. There's some trails, hard to walk on the paved…read moreareas due to cars, but it isn't impossible. There's a great swimming beach and playground with a good amount of shade. It can get busier with folks fishing, but the small lake is pretty and is generally pretty quiet!

This park is a seasonal swimming hole. The beach was already closed when I visited, despite the…read moreweather still being warm. There is also a frisbee golf course and some trails. At least in the off season, there wasn't a charge to enter.

My 20-month-old daughter LOVED this park. It's across the street from an amazing coffee shop…read more(Shenandoah Joe) and has several main areas- a playground, a basketball court, a swing set area, and a pool. The playground is always open and it's built for slightly older kids. However, the bright blue and yellows allured our 20-month-old there and she loved it. She was able to climb to the second level and go down the slides and steer the toy wheel. The third level requires climbing a ladder, but if you can get your kid to go up, it's worth it. They have two larger slides that adults would enjoy too!

This park has a basket ball court, swings and a play area for little ones. There is a pool that…read morelooks like it would be fun for kids when it is open as it has a mini water slide. Some benches under trees. Located across the street from a Shenandoah Joe's coffee house.

Just a few blocks from our apartment, The Park is a simple, yet great place. For students, they…read morehave recreational sports here, such as flag football and softball. I've watch many a law school softball games at the fields here. For the nonstudent like myself, the park is open for walking, walking or playing a sport. I spend most of my time here walking the half-mile loop that is paved around the softball and turf fields. In addition, I've played Frisbee at the end of the park in the grass. No matter the time of day, you'll see people of all ages coming and going from the area. I walk from my apartment to get here, but in the evening you could park in the parking lot. It's well lit at all hours. Along with the sports areas, it has picnic tables and water fountains throughout the park. Like I said, it's simple, but serves lots of needs.