Prairie Winds Spray Park, Wading Pool & Playground

Prairie Winds Spray Park and Wading Pool is the perfect summer spot in Calgary. Sprinklers, a giant wading pool with a lazy river and a playground with a zip line close by is fun for kids of all ages.

One of our goals this summer was to visit new family-friendly places in Calgary with our two-year-old son.

The list is exhausting as Calgary truly offers endless options for families, and these are a few of our favourites (sharing more at the end):

Shouldice Park Playground, the biggest outdoor playground in Calgary
Granary Road, farm animals & playgrounds
Sikome Lake, an amazing summer beach spot

The August (and September) heat waves pushed us to explore more water activities, whether lakes, riverside parks, splash parks or wading pools.

And after hearing so many great things about Prairie Winds Park, it was time for a visit.

This post is part of the series about the best playgrounds in Calgary.

I was surprised by how many activities you can do in Prairie Winds Park throughout the year. Spray Park and wading pool are open in summer, cross-country skiing and tobogganing are great in winter, the playground is accessible year-round, and bike paths can be used whenever the weather allows.

We’re bringing you a guide to Prairie Winds Spray Park, Wading Pool & Playground so you can plan your visit. It’s divided into several sections:

Prairie Winds Park essential info
Entrance fees & opening hours
Spray Park & Wading Pool at Prairie Winds Park
Prairie Winds Park Playground
Amenities
What is & isn’t allowed at Prairie Winds Park
What’s close by & alternate plans in an unexpected rain

Here’s everything you need to know about Prairie Winds Spray Park, Wading Pool & Playground.

Prairie Winds Spray Park, Wading Pool & Playground

Prairie Winds Park essential info

Location: 223 Castleridge Blvd. NE, Calgary, Directions to the North parking lot (off of Westwinds Crescent NE)
Parking: Free parking lots north & south of the park
Public washrooms are available year-round

As you can imagine, it gets very busy during hot summer days, and you might have to circle to find parking. If you can, arrive at 9 am when the water area opens; you won’t have an issue.

Entrance fees & opening hours

Prairie Winds Park is free and open to the public year-round. According to many Google reviews, it looked different a few years ago but the park was restored in 2016/2017 and now offers a great family-friendly space.

The park with the playground is open from 5 am to 11 pm every day.

Prairie Winds Spray Park & Wading Pool is free and open daily from 9 am to 9 pm from mid-June to September (it usually closes on Labour Day). You can check the current opening status on the City of Calgary website.

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Spray Park & Wading Pool at Prairie Winds Park

If you park in the North parking lot, you will cross the zip line area and playground to access the pools. The whole water area is fenced. Upon entry, you see change rooms on your left and spray park on the right.

The Spray Park offers plenty of sprinklers for kids to run around and cool off. There are several high and ground-level water fountains for the little ones.

A very nice feature is a small water channel where you can move fish and change the water flow (the same feature is at South Glenmore Splash Park).

To be honest, Spray Park is little and judging by the kids running around, it’s not the park’s main attraction.

The giant wading pool is where all the fun is!

The whole wading pool is 0.3 to 0.6 meters deep, which was mid-thigh for me, and our two-year-old didn’t have any problem walking around. The zero-depth pool entrance is by the change rooms if you’d like easy access for the smallest kids.

There’s a round raised pool in the middle of the wading pool where the water is just ankle high; therefore, it was the favourite spot for our son.

The West side of the wading pool is dedicated to a lazy river. When we visited, I didn’t notice any strong flow coming through.

Even though the City of Calgary staff is present, there are no lifeguards on duty.

You can find shaded picnic tables scattered around the grass. The trees provide some shade, but if you’re coming for a day, I’d recommend bringing a canopy for shade.

Prairie Winds Park Playground

North of the water area and near the North parking lot is a great playground surrounded by greenery, small flower gardens, and many seating options.

The most popular area of the playground seemed to be the hill with several slides. There’s also a rotating swing, sand play area, pendulum swing, climbing poles, and a double zip line.

Amenities

The changing rooms by the entrance have washrooms with indoor and outdoor showers. They even provide shampoo.

The park is in the process of providing drinking water hook-ups for food trucks, but when we visited, there was only an ice cream truck.

What is & isn’t allowed at Prairie Winds Park water area

This is a family-friendly space, so there are several rules:

No smoking inside the pool or spray park area
No glass or ceramic containers inside the pool or spray park area
No food in the water
Children under 35 months must wear a diaper and swim pants
No diaper changing near the water
Only child-size inflatable rings, puddle jumpers, pool noodles, and flutter boards are allowed (no tubes, boats or big floaties)

What’s close by

If the rainy weather disrupts your plans, you can visit the Village Square Leisure Centre for water fun (a 7-minute drive away) or the Hangar Flight Museum (a 6-minute drive away).

Another option is an indoor playground, the closest, Treehouse indoor playground, is just 6 minutes away.