This week’s post is by guest writer Deborah Fike, who also did the Pacific Park post awhile back. I’ll be adding my thoughts as well. Here’s what she has to say:
Candlelight Park is in west Eugene off Royal avenue, to the west of Beltline. It’s a fairly big park with lots of amenities: a dog park, a playground, a basketball court, a soccer field, and a short series of trails. Here’s the park on google maps.
There is parking all along the street on Welcome Way and Throne Drive. Parking on Throne Dr. will put you closer to the play area and dog park . It shouldn’t be hard to find a spot unless there’s an event going on. The park is in a very nice, newer neighborhood, and all the people I have met on the park on three different trips were incredibly friendly.
When you turn on Throne Dr. from Royal Avenue, the first thing you will see is the enormous dog park. The dog park is divided into two sections and is separated by a creek from the rest of the park (although I have never seen water in the creek). The dog park has a lot of plastic chairs for owners to sit on and some wading pools. Whenever we’ve gone, there are always lots of people out with their dogs, so even though I have never used this part of the park, it seems pretty popular.
Just north of the dog park is the playground:
For swings, we have two kid swings and one baby swing.
Two bouncers and a climbing fire truck.
A merry-go-round.
And the highlight of the park, the large climbing play structure. For any kid who loves to climb, this thing has it all. You can climb by a circular rope ladder and a climbing wall:
You can also climb up more traditional ladders, up stairs, and through a tunnel with little windows.
For kids with more upper body strength, you can be a monkey on this twirling hanging bars.
And there are slides for everyone. A double slide for two kids to go down at once.
Plus the big granddaddy slide that gives you a nice twisty ride from the tallest point of the play structure.
If your kids aren’t much for climbing, there’s plenty of park benches for eating and a basketball court with two hoops.
Beyond that is a very large soccer field with two nets.
If your kids like to go “on adventures” like mine do, there is also a short trail system that connects the back-end of the kids’ playground and the dog park together.
There’s even a cool little bridge going over the (dry) creek.
The playground itself doesn’t have a lot of shade, though, which will make this a very hot place to be in the worst of the summer heat.
It also doesn’t have any public bathrooms, so make sure the kids go before you leave the house.
All in all, I love this park. I often go here with my kids after a trip to the WinCo on Barger. It offers a lot without having any sand or water features, which can be nice in the summer when you really don’t want to have to clean up after a park trip.
by Deborah Fike, a project manager and marketing professional with two young children.
Melanie Says: I love how this park is surrounded by fields. We aren’t a big dog family, but we were never bothered by any dogs, and it’s fun to watch them play in the designated area.
Royal avenue is a busy street, and it’s a bit loud, but it’s nowhere near the play area, so that was OK.
We enjoyed this park too. It’s in a nice neighborhood, has fun structures, and places to explore. Thanks for the write-up, Deborah!
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