Kemp Mill Urban Park (Silver Spring)

The huge slide and climbing web is clearly the centerpiece of the newly-renovated Kemp Mill Urban Park, and indeed, it is usually swarming with kids. But the park also has a number of fun, unusual climbing structures, as well as an enclosed basketball/soccer court and swings.

The playground is clearly designed for older kids, but there is a scattering of structures for toddlers and younger children, including some play houses that are nicely shaded by trees, a smaller slide, and some other climbing equipment. Unfortunately, these are widely separated, so there's no `little kid area.' In general, I would go to this playground for older kids; but if you have younger ones in tow, they will definitely not be bored.

As a bonus, this playground is part of an outdoor shopping center that also has a nice cafe, a pizza shop, a supermarket, and a fabulous candy store.

Adventure Park (South Germantown)

The centerpiece of this castle-themed playground -- proclaimed "super cool" by my eight-year-old -- is, well, a castle. But it doesn't just look good; it's a mostly-wooden maze packed with steps, ladders, drawbridges, and slides. The same is true of the ship-shaped climbing structure geared for younger kids. There's also a collection of wooden play structures for toddlers, various animal-shaped climbing sculptures, swings of both the standard and disc-shaped variety, a musical play section, and a stand-alone climbing wall (because, apparently, why not?)

Trees provided segments of shade even at high noon, though the main castle structure is not in the shade, and there is both an enormous parking lot and -- da ding! -- a bathroom. Overall, one of the most interesting and fun playground Montgomery County has to offer. Even my 11-year-old wants to go back.

(It looks like there's a splash park just up the road, which we might check out in the summer. But on a first visit, the adventure park was more than enough to keep my kids occupied for an afternoon.)