Some playgrounds are plastic and primary colors. Kendall's newest one is made of forest.
Kendall Indian Hammocks Park — 175 acres of natural forest tucked into the suburbs at 11395 SW 79th Street — is now home to a brand-new nature-based playground, designed to inspire children of all abilities to explore the outdoors through imaginative play.
The equipment list reads like a kid's wish list and an inclusion checklist at the same time: a Sensory Dome that pairs climbing with sensory play, outdoor musical instruments, springers and swings, and an ADA-accessible "Wizard's Hideaway" play cottage with a double slide. Around the structures, nature does the decorating — Australian pine logs double as play elements and seating, so the playground feels grown out of the hammock rather than dropped onto it.
The setting does half the magic. The park holds a natural forest community and archaeological sites, plus softball fields, a skate park, disc golf, walking trails, and picnic shelters. It's also a working classroom: under a joint-use agreement, students from TERRA High School and Miami-Dade Public Schools treat the park as a living laboratory, conducting hands-on research on everything from beetles to the invasive air potato vine.
The county says the project advances its Parks and Open Space Master Plan — the community-inspired push for a seamless, sustainable system of parks for this generation and the next. In Kendall, that vision now comes with a slide.
