Bonnet Springs Park
Bonnet Springs Park, new to Lakeland, FL, is a beautiful park only a couple miles from downtown. Parallel to the park is Kathleen Road, a popular road taking you from north to south Lakeland. Lake Wire is viewable from the park, with restaurants and bars if the parks amenities doesn’t suit your needs. At Bonnet Springs Park you may find their restaurant, a Starbucks, full bar, butterfly sanctuary, event center, or get away wandering upon their amazing paved trails. Visitors enjoy this highly family friendly park that also allows pets.
What to love about this park:
- You cant get lost at this place. All of the attractions are connected by a 1.7 mile long loop. There is also a tram that continuously loops around with 6 different stops.
- The play grounds are wonderful! So many different kid friendly attractions across the 168 acres of park. There is also a water splash area near the slides for children to interact with.
- The all new Florida Children’s Museum. This is the new location for the well known Explorations V museum. This place is generally for kids ages 1-12. t offers almost 48,000 square feet of fun.
- The Tree House! (pictured above) This is available to rent for events and birthday parties, and is open to the public when not reserved. There is air conditioning and a small bathroom as well.
- Crenshaw Canopy Walk. This boardwalk offers views from as high as 25 feet in the air. It is stroller friendly, and a great place to find some shade. There are benches along the way for resting.
- Butterfly House! This is a great stop to explore along the 1.7 mile loop. Step inside to hopefully find some active butterflies and nesting cocoons.
There are many more options!
One more option of many, would be the Watson Clinic History Gallery at the Welcome Center.
“100 years ago, this was the largest rail yard in Central Florida which is why George Jenkins built Publix headquarters just down the road, so I am told–and I am not a historian, but there was time when Lakeland was bigger economically and bigger than Tampa and Orlando. Post WW2, the rail yard was shuttered in favor of the diesel engine because this was a steam yard,” Henderson told us.
Over the years, the park became over grown and nearly forgotten until someone in the community decided to dream big.
“Local realtor David Bunch had a vision for a park on this property and went to Carol and Barney Barnett and talked them into purchasing the land from CSX and really over the last 7 years brought us to where we are today,” said Henderson.
The center also dives into the history of the citrus and phosphate industries and talks about communities of people who worked on the railway.
If your kids love trains, they’ll love the Welcome Center. They can even press a button to make a mini locomotive near the ceiling move around the room.
Trains haven’t completely disappeared from the area. A CSX railway is close by and you can even see the trains uphill from the Ruthven Family Playground. There is a fence, so kids can’t walk over to the railway.
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Contact
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(863)-698-3342