City of Walnut Creek Unveils All-Abilities Woodland Adventure Playground and UV Shade Sails at Larkey Park

Park planners with the City of Walnut Creek Arts + Recreation and Public Works Departments and wildlife educators from the adjacent Lindsay Wildlife Experience cut the ribbon on Sunday afternoon on an all-abilities woodland adventure playground, poured-in-place rubber safety surfacing, and overhead UV shade canopies at Larkey Park at 2771 Buena Vista Avenue in northern Walnut Creek. Shaded by a magnificent grove of century-old valley and coast live oaks next to the Larkey Swim Center and Lindsay Wildlife Museum, the thirteen-acre neighborhood park attracts more than 180,000 annual visitors and school field-trip groups.

Designed to blend harmoniously into the surrounding oak woodland, the 8,600-square-foot play sanctuary replaces a twenty-four-year-old tot lot with a dual-zone inclusive treehouse structure. Double-wide wheelchair ramps connect ground-level nature discovery panels—featuring tactile bronze castings of native grey foxes, acorn woodpeckers, and western pond turtles—directly to elevated swaying bridge decks, roller slides that eliminate static electricity for children with cochlear implants, and a flush-entry wheelchair glider.

Across the entire play footprint, installers poured a seamless dual-durometer EPDM rubber safety floor inlaid with a winding blue-and-pebble mosaic stream. Along the quieter eastern oak grove, occupational-therapy consultants helped site three acoustic sensory cocoon pods, a chime-and-marimba xylophone alcove, and five tensioned forest-green HDPE shade sails that block 95 percent of ultraviolet rays.

The $820,000 Larkey Park playground modernization was approved by the Walnut Creek City Council through Measure O capital funds and a California State Parks per-capita grant. Families can view park amenities and picnic reservation details on the City of Walnut Creek Parks Portal.