Old Settlers Park (Round Rock)

 Old Settlers Park is Round Rock’s “crown jewel and sports destination” (according to the city’s website), and we can certainly understand why Round Rock feels this way from just the little bit that the kids and I experienced yesterday.  We found the main entrance off of E Palm Valley and Harrell Blvd by the Dell Diamond, and on our way out, rather than turning around, we continued on the park road and wound up on Old Settlers Blvd.  This park is massive.  To give you an idea of how sprawling this place is with all the sporting fields, here’s a 3D rendering of the sports complex from the architectural company that helped in the park development.

For being the crown jewel park though, Round Rock’s website is not terribly descriptive about this park beyond inventory list, and I had little luck finding a map online beyond just the hiking trail.  My kids and I explored as much as we could before calling it quits with the heat.  Turning onto Harrell, on the left hand side is an area with historical barns, homes, and buildings.  There were maintenance crews at work so we left the area sans photos, though this spot would be fantastic for family photos in the fall.  Here are some photos of this area on Flickr, taken two weeks ago.  

Continuing down Harrell, we came upon some sporting fields to the right, and the Rock ‘n River Family Aquatics pool was on the left atop a hill.  The gigantic tube water slide caught our attention so the kids and I stopped the car to have a peek at the pool, more on this in another review devoted just to the Rock ‘n River Family Aquatics.  Suffice to say, it looks fantastic to bring the wee ones.

We continued down Harrell Blvd, passing still more baseball and softball fields, when my preschooler screamed for me to stop the car.  She had spotted a playground.  Old Settler’s Park is supposed to have 3 playgrounds, and the Joanne Land Playground that we found had two playscapes (one for 2-5 yrs old and the other for 5-12 yrs old).  We weren’t sure if this was one of the three playgrounds, or two of the three.  In any case, we never did find a “third” playground.  We stopped here and spent a good hour with the kids running and playing happily.  The smaller of the two playgrounds is well designed for toddlers and preschoolers.  The entire structure is enclosed once up, and the slides are easy down for the little ones.  There are also two dinosaur climbing structures and two infant bucket swings.  The playground structures look relatively new.

Down the walkway to the larger playscape, we found a “rolling log, ” a netted climbing wall, a horizontal zipline, four sling swings, and a big climbing playcape with 5 slides and a “cave.”  One unique feature of the playscape that most playgrounds do not have is that there are tube “speakers” where one child can speak into one end and another can listen and respond at the other end.  The larger playground is like a miniature version of the South Park Meadows playground.

Though the park playground equipment was well maintained, I also found more trash here than at most city parks.  There were plastic water bottles left on the ground and watermelon rinds on the mulch.  I try not to preach in my reviews, but seriously, pick up after your children if you let them eat and drink at the park!  The watermelon rinds looked fresh enough to have been thrown out just the day before, and they were covered in ants.  I was not thrilled and did a bit of housekeeping at the park before I let my 1 year old wander lest he pick up the rotting rinds and try to eat them, ants, dirt, and all.

The playground overlooks Old Settlers Pond, and though the area was not well shaded, we did enjoy a nice breeze which helped to stifle the heat.  Near the playground was a large restroom and a covered, rentable pavilion.  There are supposed to be areas where one can fish at the pond so we will return in a future time to test out the water.

We saw parts of the paved hiking trail along the drive and near this playground.  We did not see the disc golf course, but we did find the many tennis courts and sand volleyball courts.  The only other park in the same area with this many concentrated sporting fields is the Southwest Williamson County Regional Park.

Old Settlers Park is so big and packed with so much “stuff” that it has a bit of something to offer every member of the family.  The City of Round Rock often hosts free events at this park.

Old Settlers Park
3300 E. Palm Valley Blvd
Round Rock, TX  78664
(512) 218-5540

Related posts:

1. Kinningham Park (Round Rock)
2. Rock ‘n River Family Aquatic Center review
3. Cedar Rock train and Southwest Williamson County Regional Park
4. Tarrytown Park, a neighborhood park close to just about everything
5. Tanglewood Park (northwest Austin)