Dix Park

This park is super interesting! There is lots of art scattered around the park so be on the look out! It's strange at first because it looks like a hospital complex or a college. (If you research who Dorothea Dix was, she was a nurse that fought for mental illness funding among other things.) It was a bit confusing at first, but we did find it. We started at Gibson Play Plaza. It had a sensory park, play structure, and sand pit (and water area/water falls in the warmer months). There were plenty of places to sit and watch the children. there were spots on different levels of the park. There are different areas with slides and adults can fit on them too! Word of caution: they are fast and the curved ones can be a bit hard lol. The kids were having the best time. Then we walked to the trolls. There are five altogether. We had to walk through the park, which felt like a spooky abandoned hospital complex. there are large fields and a dog park. It took us a minuted but look for signs for the trolls. The first two are before the dog park. You have to walk out to the forest trail. You can see the second one from the road. Then we cut through a parking lot and more boarded up buildings to find the next two. Again you have to walk out where you find the small troll. go in the forest and follow the tail to the big troll. We also past a old cemetery on the way back to the playground. The fifth troll you can see when you head towards the parking lot by Gibson Play Plaza. There is a field with doors...not sure if that was an art exhibit or not. Again it's a slightly creepy vibe while walking around. We had an awesome time and will definitely go back!

We absolutely love Dix Park. It’s huge and has so much to offer, making it easy to spend a lot of time here without getting bored. The wide open spaces are perfect for kids to run around, and they had a blast rolling down the hills. One of the highlights was the giant troll, which was a big bonus and such a fun and unique feature for the park. It’s a great place for families, with plenty of room to explore, relax, and enjoy the outdoors.

So this was the first time I had been here and it was free and I got to see the trolls. It was like a scavenger hunt and it was great. I enjoyed the walk and trying to find all the trolls there was five. It was awesome and the trolls are so beautiful whoever did these has a great imagination. They were awesome

We went to Dix Park to see the five trolls. They were more impressive than I had imagined. The details and craftsmanship were amazing. We parked near the dog park and sunflower field which worked out well. There are two near the dog park and two in the woods closest to the sunflower field. To get to the fifth one, we walked maybe 10 minutes over a bridge by dog park, up a hill veering to the left and other folks walking along the same path got us there. The fifth one is near a great playground with super nice bathrooms and several sculptures. We had a picnic there as well. I would definitely come back.

Lots of parking, good little trails. Lots of art. A large dog park. Public port a Johns for bathroom with hand washing stations. Lots of open space. Great place for gatherings. We came during late late winter season and ground was soggy but mud was avoidable. Not much blooming but in the summer im sure everything here is beautiful, looks like they have a great pollinators program.