COUNTYWIDE : Adventure Parks Let Kids Be Kids

There is only a chain-link fence separating the playground and grassy knolls at Hurless Barton Park in Yorba Linda from an adjacent dirt lot, but they might as well be in different counties.

With its swings, slides and playing fields, Barton Park has an ordinary suburban playground. Next door at Adventure Playground, kids tramp around in dirt, the only swing is a cable that dips perilously close to a mud pit, and the so-called “Slide of Doom” ends in a murky pond.

So where would 9-year-old Billy Colbert rather play?

“Here,” Billy said, pointing to a tree fort he was building with some buddies and shaking his head in disbelief at a seemingly pointless question.

Billy’s answer would have come as no surprise to anyone who can remember the simple fun in transforming an empty refrigerator box into a spaceship, a playhouse or a train.

Conventional playgrounds, while fun and safe, differ from Adventure Playgrounds in a big way--they were designed and built by adults, with adult sensibilities evident everywhere.

But the idea behind Adventure Playgrounds--there are three in Orange County--is to provide children with the raw materials for fun, then let their imaginations take over.

So while the climbing apparatus at Hurless Barton park escalates at regular, planned intervals, the tree house that was being built by 8-year-old Bonnie Leccese and her friends meanders from one level to the next, with no apparent design.

And rather than the mild challenge of an adult-designed jungle gym, Colbert’s fort requires traversing a narrow catwalk to get from the main level to a crow’s nest.

Adventure Playgrounds offer kids mud, sand and water play, obstacle courses and rope climbing. The playground at Huntington Central Park in Huntington Beach has a pond for raft rides, and Irvine’s playground, at University Community Park, has animals and a garden.

But fort-building remains the main attraction for these playgrounds, which attract slightly more boys than girls.

At one fort in Yorba Linda, two boys peered up at the underside of a platform about 5 feet up a tree.

“We need a thing to support those boards,” one boy said.

The other boy turned and yelled, “Kevin, can you help us build a brace?”

He was talking to Kevin Kjer, 29, a recreational specialist who oversees the Adventure Playground at Hurless Barton Park. Kjer and his staff are constantly circling the playground, checking the stability of every fort. Each group is also assigned a teen-age volunteer who has been trained in proper building techniques and safety.

The 300 children who visit the Adventure Playground in Huntington Beach each day probably don’t realize it, but they are doing more than just having fun.

Director Laurie Risinger said that whether the kids are building forts in teams or paddling a raft with a partner, they are learning about cooperation.

At Barton, participants also learn budgeting skills and the art of negotiating. Builders must earn money for lumber, tools and nails by performing a variety of tasks, such as picking up trash or pulling nails out of discarded lumber. Unsafe practices, such as leaving nail-studded lumber on the ground, can result in a fine.

Adventure Playgrounds are also a big hit with parents. Marge Walton, the Irvine program coordinator, said parents enjoy watching their children’s imaginations run rampant.

“They seem to enjoy watching them get dirty, knowing they don’t have to get mad at them about it,” Walton said. “The parents just hose off the kids before they leave.”

Indeed, one of the biggest appeals of the playgrounds is the opportunity to get dirty with immunity from scoldings.

“My mom doesn’t care if I get dirty here,” Billy Colbert said, his voiced tinged with amazement. “She really doesn’t.”

Each city imposes age restrictions and costs for the use of Adventure Playgrounds. Reservations are usually required for large groups. For information, call (714)) 961-7160 regarding Yorba Linda’s playground, (714) 842-7442 for Huntington Beach, or (714) 786-0851 for Irvine.