Cave Creek Park in Phoenix is a collection of 6 separate parks in central Phoenix, starting near 23rd Avenue and Peoria and running north along a drainage canal to 23rd Avenue to Thunderbird. There are playgrounds, basketball courts, and restrooms at most locations and a paved path to connect them all. The locations from south to north are as follows:
Cave Creek Park – Cholla (2505 W Cholla St, Phoenix, 85029): this is the best of the parks! A newly updated playground (as of early 2021), has a toddler playground and a 5-12 playground, both with slides and climbing options. A small swing set is to the side, with one toddler swing, a special needs swing, and two regular swings. Two large parking lots are also available, with restrooms, and sports fields.
Cave Creek Park – Sandlilly (2500 W. Cactus Road, Phoenix, 85029): this is just a small parking area, with access to a bridge to cross the canal. Lots of green grass here if you’re just looking for a place to have a picnic! Also, you could park here and then walk south to Cholla Park.
Cave Creek Park – Cactus (2400 W Cactus Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85029): despite listing a playground on the city’s website, there is none. You will find restrooms and very worn sports areas, and lots of homeless people.
Cave Creek Park – Larkspur (2356 W Larkspur Dr, Phoenix, AZ 85029): this is the second-best park in the collection! There are just two playgrounds, toddler sized and big kid sized, with picnic areas around, but it’s a unique one with slides and climbing options, plus numerous large tunnels and kid-sized caves to climb in and over! The kids loved it and we played here the longest. The toddler loved the swings. Note that there are no restrooms.
Cave Creek Park – Sweetwater (2409 W Sweetwater Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85029): the kids liked the collection of tunnels here, as well as the swings and curly slide. But the fully covered playground itself was stripped bare, like literally, no zip line on the line, and no toddler swings, etc. There are restrooms here.
Cave Creek Park – Thunderbird (13670 N 23rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85029): with a small but decent playground, restrooms, and a large basketball court, this park also had numerous homeless people. So we didn’t stay long. The kids liked the two versions of monkey bars here tho.
In all honesty, the park, on the whole, was disappointing. Cholla and Larkspur Parks were the best and worth a visit! The others were worn and dirty, and the areas trashy. We also didn’t feel entirely safe, as there were groups of homeless people. From Larkspur Park, walking north towards Sweetwater Park was fun too, as we crossed two bridges.
You can view more information about the parks here.
And lots more park reviews can be found on this list!
