Geocaching in Radnor Twp. - The Willows, Skunk Hollow, and Saw Mill Park - Part 2

I feel that I should explain something - part 1 of my little series on The Willows, Skunk Hollow, and Saw Mill Park didn't have much actual Geocaching in it, aside from the list of caches and a comment or two.  This is because I picked those caches up months ago.  The caching in these parks is very enjoyable, but since I found these well over 100 caches ago, I did not have any fresh stories to tell.

This is not the case with Part 2.  I have three caches to share, and all of them have a tale.

Picking up where we left off:

Entrance to Skunk Hollow from The Willows.

Skunk Hollow is a really neat area.  This is where Radnor Twp. takes all of their compostable material and dumps them into huge piles for composting.  This composting area takes up most of the center of the park, and there are trails, fields, and streams (Darby Creek, specifically) peppered throughout the area.

From the entrance at The Willows, you come in at a community garden area, with the huge compost mounds located behind that.
 

Nice little community garden area.  There are usually people gardening here when I visit.

If you immediately turn right once you enter this area, you'll find some beehives up ahead. This is one of the reasons I wanted to take Jack to this part of the park. He's really into insects and it was pretty neat to get up close and personal (relatively speaking) to some active hives.

They left us alone until I stood there for a while trying to get a video.  Even then, it was really just some harmless swooping and buzzing, but I took the cue and walked a little farther away.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but those mulch piles are immense.

That's the back fence for the community garden to the left, and the mulch piles in the distance.

Jack enjoyed this area, even though we didn't get too close to the piles.  I guess the proximity to all of the dirt was enough to keep him happy.

Walking a little farther up the hill, you come across the entrance to the trail.

The trail entrance.

The trail itself is pretty scenic.  It's a nice little trip through the woods, and it has enough scenery to keep things interesting, even with a 7 year old.

It's hard to keep him focused on looking where he's walking.

It's a tiny bit hilly, but nothing steep or dangerous.

Twin trees.

Within a few minutes walk of the trail entrance, you come across the first cache - The Willows Two-Step: Step 1.  I had been looking at this cache on the Geocaching site for a while, and since it had quite a few favorite points I was very interested in finding it.

The cache location is simply along the trail; no amazing sights or anything. However, the cache container is freaking sweet!  I would never have found this without checking the hint and reading through previous logs, and it was well worth checking out, especially if you are looking for ideas for a well-made hide of your own.

I had picked this cache up on my first trip here, so with Jack in tow on trip #2, I had him find this one more or less on his own, with only a little help from me.

Here's where things started getting fun.  Apparently, these trails are really popular with dog walkers.  Jack had the cache in hand and I was helping him sign the log when someone walked by with a dog in tow.  They gave us a little look, as it was obvious we were up to something, so I just said something about Geocaching to Jack right as they walked by.  I don't know that I got a knowing look in return, but at least they seemed to think that whatever we were doing was legit.

The two of us then proceeded down the path another 10 minutes or so to pick up the second cache in the series: The Willows Two-Step: Step 2.

He's really just looking for swear words.  This has been an issue with him since he learned how to read.

I'd love to know what kind of storm cracked this huge tree apart.  I wouldn't necessarily want to have been there when it happened, but maybe a weather report or something would be interesting.

Here's where it got fun.  Jack was off from school due to a teacher in-service day, so I took the day off of work.  I'm the entire IT department where I work, so even on my days off I expect the occasional call and I try to help as best I can.  Of course, being 1/2 mile down a trail in the woods doesn't mean I can do a whole heck of a lot, but I make the effort anyway.

Right before we found the second cache (which ended up being pretty standard but well hidden), I received a call from work.  While I was trying to diagnose the tech problem, Jack was poking around looking for the cache.  Out of nowhere, this huge, I mean one of the largest dogs I have ever seen, came bounding down the path right toward us.  I could hear someone shouting in the distance down the trail, but my attention was pretty evenly split between my tech call, Jack (who was scared half out of his wits), and this massive dog running full speed directly at us.

It looked like a gigantic German Shepard, and I have since Googled for what breed it may be, and the best I have come up with is... an oversized German Shepard.  Whatever it was, it was coming right for me.

Now, I'm 6'8" tall and about 300 pounds, so I wasn't too worried about myself, but Jack could have been swallowed whole by this thing, and while this was happening I was still trying to take this call from a VIP at work while trying not to mention that we're about to be killed by a dog... well, Jack at least.  He was already behind me holding on for dear life when this huge, aggressive dog ran right up to me, slammed the brakes on, took one sniff, and wandered off like we didn't even exist.

I totally lost my train of thought with the work call, but it was Ok because there wasn't anything more I could do over the phone anyway.  Right as I disconnected the dog's owner came sprinting up, very apologetic.  Apparently the big dog is very aggressive (but friendly) when it senses other dogs are around, and when it heard us it took off to investigate.  Since we weren't dogs, it lost interest.

All in all, it was no big deal, but Jack was totally shaken.  Considering that he could have ridden off into the sunset on this thing (...it was big enough that I may have been able to as well) I could totally understand.  Once the dog and its owner were out of earshot, he turned to me and said "That dog scared the crap out of me."  Usually he'd get in trouble for swearing, but considering the circumstances I thought it was appropriate and let it go.  And since he learned the word "crap" from his mother, it's really all her fault anyway. :)

We explored a little farther down the trail before heading back.

More scenery.

That little blob in the bottom left center of this image is Jack near a pretty big tree.

Winding path through a little hilly area.

This is about as artistic as I get.

Between the hike and the stale adrenaline from his near brush with death, Jack was burned out and ready to head home.  Right as we were getting ready to leave the Skunk Hollow area, I mentioned that there was another cache - Skunk Hollow - only about 100 feet away.  Since we were so close, he decided to give it a shot.  I had found this one on Trip #1 the week before, so it would be an easy grab... or so I thought.

You need to go off trail pretty close to this abandoned cart.

 This cache is a little of the trail, in a brush filled area between the trail and Darby Creek.

Off the trail, overlooking the creek.

Woodpeckers?  Termites?  I think woodpeckers.

The area is quite overgrown, and the first time I had looked for this cache a few months back I had come over from the wrong side of the creek.

The creek.

And more creek.

Jack and I were wearing shorts, but since the foliage back there was just starting to sprout, and since there weren't any obvious thorns, we went for it.  Of course, 30 seconds after making the find, Jack wandered off of the little clear path we took and walked right into the only thorn bush for 50 feet.  His first instinct is to panic, and sure enough, he got a little thorn puncture that started to bleed.  And then he totally freaked out.

I guess it was a lot to ask, considering our longish hike and recent dog attack, but I really thought he could handle this one.  Wow, was I wrong.  He screamed bloody murder - loud enough that the people gardening took notice - all while I was trying to get back to the car, which at this point was probably 1/4 mile away.

Our conversation went as follows:

Jack - "It's bleeding! It's bleeding!  I'm going to die!"
Me - "No you're not, it's Ok!  It's just a little scratch!"
Jack - "I'm dying!  Did you bring the first aid kit!  I need first aid!"
Me - "It's in my car."
Jack - (weeping) - "How could you do this to me!  I'm dying!  How far is the car?"
Me - "Err... maybe a 5 minute walk?"
Jack - "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

I tried to get him to walk it off, but he dragged his leg like he had been caught in a bear trap, weeping and yelling the whole way.  We got a lot of weird looks, but finally made it back to the car where I applied the absolute smallest band-aid that I have ever used to the "wound".  As soon as he was patched up it was like a switch flipped and he wanted to have a snack and play a little while longer, so I broke out a juice box and some pretzels and he was 100% totally normal again.

I've commented on caching with a kid before, and I guess this just goes with the territory.

Well, that's it for this part of the parks.  I'm going to head back to the other side of Skunk Hollow in the coming weeks, as well as pick up a multi that starts in Saw Mill Park.  Until then, if you're in the area, please come check this spot out yourself.   It's scenic, full of caches, and a lot of fun.

Caches in this post:

• The Willows Two-Step: Step 1
• The Willows Two-Step: Step 2
• Skunk Hollow

Geocaching in Radnor Twp. - The Willows, Skunk Hollow, and Saw Mill Park - Part 1

After taking some needed time off for my health (not 100% better yet, but I'm getting there), I decided to overcompensate by going to one of my favorite caching areas to take lots of pictures.  Not once, but twice - I went the first day on lunch break, and then again about a week later when Jack was home from school for a teacher in-service day.

I've mentioned these parks before, both in a short blog post and again on my Great Local Parks post.  Saw Mill Park, Skunk Hollow, and The Willows are three connected parks located in Radnor Township, PA.  There are developed "park" areas, as well as a good amount of hiking trails, all of which are in a very scenic area.   While there are no playgrounds or anything like that for kids, Jack has really enjoyed himself both times I've taken him there.

There are 13 caches spread out among the three parks.  If you intend to pick them all up on one trip, figure on at least 3 hours to do the whole thing.  If you drive a bit between parks and don't run into any trouble finding the hides you may be able to cut that short, but since the whole point of caching is seeing sights and exploring, you may want to give yourself a half day or so to soak it all in.

Since I have so many freaking pictures (I whittled down my original 90 or so to 35) just for this first part of the park, this post will have significantly less rambling... well, somewhat less rambling.   Since these trips focused on The Willows and one little part of Skunk Hollow, two posts will encompass both parks, with a little bit of overlap.  I'll have a followup post 3 and possibly 4 when I get to the other side of Skunk Hollow and Saw Mill Park.

Since I took these on two separate trips during the first spring week when the leaves budded and grew you may notice some inconsistencies as there was a lot of growing that week.  Err... deal with it I guess?

Without further ado, here are the pictures:

Saw Mill Park is on the left, just beyond the trees.

The first few pics show the drive up to the park.  It's very scenic, and there are often cows doing whatever cows do in the fields.

Despite the speedy looking blur, I wasn't driving all that fast.  My car really isn't capable of speeding.

This was taken the week the trees first really started getting their leaves.

Coming from the south part of Darby Paoli Road, all of the parks are on the left hand side.  Saw Mill Park, followed by Skunk Hollow, and then The Willows.  You can park at any of the three and walk through any of them, though the largest parking areas are in The Willows.

I was driving slowly, so it was totally safe to take this pic and drive at the same time. 

Events are held in The Willows, and since this little farm house / gate house thing has a banner and its own parking area I'm guessing they may use this building for something occasionally. Signs mention that this is also a residence, so what I'm saying is that I really don't know what this building is for.   What I do know is that there is a cache located before you pass the building. 

Very pretty little island in the distance.  I've been to this park probably 8 times in the past 6 months and this was one of the only times nobody was on the bench.

A long driveway goes around in a U shape, passing by a large parking area for the mansion (more later) on the right - there is another cache near that parking area, but you can't park there during weddings or whatever else they do at the mansion.  There is another parking area right after you cross a little bridge, and that's where you can park to do the rest of your caching.

Using the parking area as your base camp, there are two more caches heading toward the driveway exit - Willows Micro, which is a tricky little hide in a neat little area across a field.  The first time I tried to get it I barely missed disturbing a large bee's nest, but the CO moved it to a less sting prone area and I was able to make the find.

Lone Ranger #1 The Willows is located very near the exit, pretty close to the parking area.  If you pick those two up, you can head back toward the park proper to get the rest.

After parking, looking back toward the park.  The mansion is visible in  the center of the image.

There are little tile mosaics in the bridge.  I'd be able to judge the scale of this better if I knew how tall Jack was these days.  "Short" is my best estimate.

Darby Creek meanders through all three parks.

Cross the bridge and walk back up toward the park to get Willows Nano.  This is located near the beautiful little (I mean tiny) island. 

Technically, the Willows Nano cache is in this picture somewhere.  You can't see it, though.

The mansion is visible in front of the trees in the distance.

Very neat little island, though as mentioned before, it's almost always occupied.

Better picture of the mansion.

Once you pick up Willows Nano, head toward the mansion.  Keep it on your right, and follow the little hill toward the guard house(?) on the right.  I mean, it looks like a guard house, though it could be a storage room for all I know.  I imagine that it's a guard house.

He's becoming too cool to be seen walking around with his dad.  Did I mention that he's 7 years old?  Can't wait for the teenage years...

If you have a few minutes to kill, climb up the stairs and check out the little garden and fireplace.

He climbed up those ledges, rather than walk up like a normal human.

From the top of the guard house / garden area, you get a nice view of the park.  Willows Micro is located over that hill somewhere.

Looking back toward the guard house.

The entrance to Skunk Hollow is just past the guard house.  There is an information board and a sign marking the trail head, though it opens up right past these trees.

Ok, that's it for part one. I have much more to show, and hopefully will have a few productive days to get the post done.  Look for Part Two - Skunk Hollow later in the week.

Geocaches in this post:

• Willows Micro #3
• Willows Micro #2
• Willows Micro
• Lone Ranger #1 The Willows
• Willows Nano

Great Local Parks for Family Caching Adventures

While I'm an avid cacher, my wife isn't, and our 7 year old son, Jack, likes caching but can get bored or frustrated with it pretty quickly.  I like being able to involve them in caching without actually having to drag them out of the house to do it, so I've been keeping track of cache locations that meet at least one of several criteria:

• Playground Area - The bigger, the better.  This gives a kid something to do if the cache takes a while to find, and has the added benefit of helping burn off excess energy.
• Nature Features - Is there a lake or a pond for fishing?  Is there an easy nature trail nearby?
• Interesting Sights - Is there a hidden path, or a ruin nearby?  Are there scenic views?

Note that I'm basing this around having a 7 year old - adjust for your child's age appropriately. I'm planning on keeping this list updated as I find locations that meet the criteria, so look for a link to this post in the Guides page as well.

Parks are listed in alphabetical order.  The initial batch of parks are all within about 12 miles from the base of Rt. 476 (the Blue Route), where it meets I-95.  All of them are within a 10-15 minute drive of the Blue Route, tops, with one in particular being about 500 feet off of exit 3.

The map below shows all of the parks and can be used to get directions.

View Great Local Parks for Family Geocaching Adventures in a larger map

Ashbridge Memorial Park - Lower Merion, PA 
Includes Playground Area and Nature Features

Very nice park, with a big playground.

This is a great park with a big playground, tennis courts, and plenty of open ground to wander around.  Keara's Monkey Cache is located on the premises, and is a great cache to pick up with a child "helper".

Other nearby caches include Austin Holly Cache, which is about 1/3 of a mile away, and the two caches in Emlen Tunnell Park, which is just under a mile away - Emlen Tunnell Park and Lone Ranger #7 Is it fair or foul? Another one nearby, Rio, is a little more than a mile and a half down Montgomery Ave. in a great little bird sanctuary.

Eastlake Park - Ridley Park, PA
Includes Playground Area (across the street) and Nature Features

Lots of fish and turtles.

Ok, so I'm a little biased toward this park as I live nearby and have two caches here, but this is a great place for kids if you want to take them fishing.  There is a dock located on the west side of the lake, and every day during the summer there are kids fishing there.  There are also a lot of critters living nearby -there is a Great Blue Heron, a Great Egret, tons of ducks and geese, as well as plenty of fish, turtles, frogs, and the occasional snake in the water.  A fox lives up in the area near the baseball field, and somebody spotted it while picking up my cache.

Photo from Google Earth that I actually took a few years ago.

There's also a playground area across the street from the park near the elementary school, but since it's off of park grounds I'm not listing it as official.  It's available for use any time except during school hours, so if you're here on a weekend feel free to take the kids over.

There are three caches in the park itself - View of the Lake, which happens to be the first cache I ever found, and two of my Arcade History caches: Breakout and Frogger.  All of them are within walking distance of each other.  You are also about a one minute drive to Hangin' Here Watchin' The Trains, which is a short two part multi with both steps in the same little park, so no driving needed.  That's right around the corner from step 1 of Hangin' Here Watchin' Traffic, which involves a little bit of driving (maybe about a mile), but should be solvable in about 20-30 minutes.  And as another shameless plug, my Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial cache is less than a mile away in another park nearby.

Haverford Reserve - Haverford, PA
Includes Playground Area and Nature Features

Old picture - most of the dirt in the corners has since
turned into developed land.

This is a very large park, only about a 5 minute drive from Ithan Valley Park, mentioned below.  There is a huge playground area and several massive sports fields.  There is also a dog park, and quite a few long hiking trails.

There are two caches in this park - European Vacation, which is a quick grab right on the main road, and X-Men Marks The Spot: Wolverine #2, which is one of the best disguised caches I've found, located on one of the hiking trails.

With the proximity to Ithan Valley Park, this is a good two-for-one deal.  Ithan Valley is loaded with nature and Haverford Reserve has an awesome playground.

Houston Park - Nether Providence Twp., PA
Includes Nature Features and Interesting Sights

Very cool stuff underneath those trees.

As I already have a long post about this park with tons of pictures, I'll keep this one short.  There is a terrific nature trail underneath all of those trees in the above picture.  The trail leads you through the grounds of an old mansion from the 1920s.  There is a stream with a gorgeous stone bridge, and several other little ruined areas to explore.

Stone bridge.

When I went back here with Jack, the only issue we ran into was that he wasn't watching where he was going and almost fell down about a dozen times when we were going down the hill toward the bridge.  Once we were down there he thought this place was awesome!  No jungle gyms or anything, but lots of nature to look at and plenty to explore.

Two caches are in this park - Let The Sun Shine In is a regular cache pretty close to the trail, and a decent one to find with kids.  Houston, we've had a problem is a puzzle cache that will take a bit of work to solve before searching for it.  Taylor's Cache is a short drive away, and located in the Taylor Arboretum, so that's another neat one for kids to visit.

Indian Orchard Park - Middletown, PA
Includes Nature Features

Trees. Lots and lots of trees.

Indian Orchard Park is a large park full of nature trails.  There are no playground areas or anything like that, but it's a gorgeous area with very easy to navigate trails, and 6 caches.  This park is also only about a 5 minute drive from Linvilla Orchards, which is incredibly popular with kids and worth checking out if you have never been there before.  Two of the caches in the park are actually on the trail that runs against some of the back fields of Linvilla.  I had a bit of an adventure there right around my birthday.

There are six caches within the park. If you do the opposite of what I did and stay on the trails, you should be able to get all six caches in 60-90 minutes. This is probably a park best suited for older kids who like nature.  The caches are - X-Men Marks The Spot: Colossus (twin to the Wolverine cache in Haverford Reserve), Scouts' Stash, Snake Trap, Phobia #10, Wish it was summer, and I am friends with Russell Crowe.  Most of them are pretty close together and fairly straightforward.  The trickiest one of the bunch is the Russell Crowe cache.

Ithan Valley Park - Bryn Mawr, PA
Includes Nature Features and Interesting Sights

Lots of nature, right against the Blue Route.

Ithan Valley Park is what remains of an estate that was knocked down when they built the Blue Route, and parts of the park are against the highway sound barrier.  There are some really nice and easy nature trails, many of which are near a beautiful stream that has a little waterfall.  There was a mill here before the estate, and the owners of the mill and estate were interested in botany and brought many trees from around the world to this spot.  Those trees, and their descendants, are marked and should be pretty easy to find.

There are three caches in the park itself - Spectacular Crash II, Ithan Park Cache, and the premium members only By-Way to the HighWay.  You can walk or drive right down the road to This Is the End of Ithan Valley Park as well.  Of those four, Spectacular Crash II is one of the more impressive cache locations in the area, but may be a bit tricky for little kids, especially if you are there during a time of year when things are overgrown. The other hides are all pretty easy and very close to well defined trails.  You should be able to pick up all four caches within an hour or so, unless you get stuck finding one of them.

Lone Ranger #2 The Blue Route is a little less than a mile down S. Ithan Ave. and another quick find, but stealth is definitely required.

Jane Lownes Park - Springfield, PA
Includes Playground Area, Nature Features, and Interesting Sights

The Springfield Trail is in those trees.

This is actually not a very big park compared to the other ones in this post.  They neat thing that gets this park the "interesting sight" category is that the Springfield Trail is located behind the park, past an otherwise unmarked trail behind the basketball courts.  You could play at this park all day and probably never notice that the trail was back there.

There is a small playground area.  Not a lot of stuff on it, but Jack was happy enough.  The walk to the trail is a little steep starting out, and the trail itself is narrow and overlooks a stream. Probably not a great place for little ones - Jack was Ok as long as he kept his eyes on the ground, but I wouldn't have taken him back here when he was 5.

Stilted Stash is pretty close to where you cross the stream to the official trail, so maybe 5 minutes from the park, tops.  If you make a left on the trail, Cobras Rock! is about 10 minute hike, and STUMPED? is past that, though I haven't gone down that way far enough to find it yet and don't know if kids would enjoy it.  There is a little picnic area near Cobras Rock! with one table and an ancient trash can, so you can make it a hiking picnic lunch adventure or something.

The Merry Place - Haverford Twp, PA
Includes Playground Area and Nature Features

Playground Area and Nature Features

This is a terrific park for kids.  A major feature is a large wooden fort, shown below.  There are also giant board games painted onto a blacktop area (Jack particularly liked playing human sized Chutes and Ladders), as well as some playground equipment, tennis courts, and a sand volleyball court.

Huge fort for kids to play in.

There is a short nature trail nearby which parallels a decent sized stream and eventually leads you to the closest cache - Merry Space Place. The parking area is also the starting point to find 2yrs/200caches, which may be a bit tricky for kids, but is still a scenic walk paralleling the stream in the opposite direction of the first cache.  You're also less than a mile away from a quick log only find - Man of Steel 2.

Skunk Hollow Park (The Willows, Skunk Hollow, and Saw Mill Park) - Radnor Twp., PA
Includes Nature Features and Interesting Sights

I have posted previously about Skunk Hollow, and will be heading back there in the spring to get some pictures. Skunk Hollow is actually one of three connected parks, each of which has caches in it.  The Willows is on the northern end, and is the lands connected to an estate that is now managed by the township and used for weddings and events.  It's very picturesque, and the parking area for The Willows can be used to enter Skunk Hollow from the north.

Skunk Hollow itself is where the township piles all of their mulch.  The huge mulch piles are next to the community gardens, and can be seen as the brown blob area in the upper middle of the picture.  Several hiking trails wander through the park, which has decent elevation changes allowing you to get lots of scenic views, as well as a stream that cuts through the area. There is a nice mix of open fields and wooded areas, and it is probably one of the prettiest parks I've visited in the months since I've been caching.

Saw Mill park is on the southern end, across Sawmill Road.  The first park of a multi cache is there, and you can park there and walk across the street to get to Skunk Hollow from the southern side. There is a farm across the stream from Saw Mill Park, which often has large bovine-type creatures there in the warmer months.  They may be some type of fancy cow or something; I couldn't tell you as I was raised in the burbs and the only cows I ever saw were already processed into food.

There are tons of caches in this area.  Starting with The Willows, you have: Willows Micro, Willows Micro # 2, Willows Micro # 3, Willows Nano, and Lone Ranger #1 The Willows.  There is also a pair of premium member only caches - The Willows Two-Step: Step 1 and The Willows Two-Step: Step 2.  Step 1 has 13 favorite points as of this writing, but I have not gotten up there to check it out myself yet.

Skunk Hollow itself has six caches: Skunk Hollow, Skunk Hollow # 2, Skunk Hollow # 3, Skunk Hollow # 4, Skunk Hollow # 5, and Skunk Hollow # 6.

Saw Mill Park has part one of a two part multi - Saw Mill Two-Step.  Part two is in Skunk Hollow itself, so after picking up part one, walk across the street and down the trails to get to part 2.

These parks are in an area with a lot of caching spots, but the closest ones worth mentioning here are the ones in Dittmar Park, and a historical virtual cache I wrote about earlier - Who's Buried in Wayne's Tomb(s)?  Both are within a 5 minute drive.  You're also less than 10 minutes away from Ithan Valley Park, so if you want to make a day of it, there are plenty of options.

Smedley Park, Springfield and Media, PA
Includes Playground Area, Nature Features, and Interesting Sights

The Blue Route runs right over the park.

This is probably the easiest park to get to, as you reach it about 15 seconds off the exit from the Blue Route.  It's also right down the road from the Springfield Mall, so there are food options and shopping very close by.

This is a great park for kids, as there is a large playground area and plenty of open space to run around.  There are also a lot of trails, and one of the things that is most fascinating for kids (hence the Interesting Sights category) is that you can go underneath the Blue Route itself.

There are three regular and three premium member caches in the park itself - Vikings TB Stash, Warm Up, and Kaboom Tree ( Kaboom Car Redux), and the premiums are MY DAD HIT TEN GRAND, Tombstone Rock, and So Close Yet So Far.  I have not had a lot of time to get back here, so I have only found the two closest to the entrance of the park and don't have much insight on the others.  They are all active caches, though.

Also note that the Springfield Trail connects to Smedley Park... somehow. I think.  I'll have to walk it and post my GPS tracks or something.

Veterans Memorial Park - Springfield, PA
Includes Playground Area and Nature Features

There are two playground areas in this park - one right near the entrance on Springfield Road, and another located at the north end of the park, easily accessible from Memorial Park Drive, but you can also get there by parking at the end of the main lot and walking down a short trail around the baseball outfield.

Veteran's Cache is located pretty close to the north playground area, though you may get your feet wet getting to it.  There are a few other caches in other nearby parks, notably Support Your Local Parks and Support Your Local Parks 2.   Both are within a few minutes' drive.  There are also three quick finds in the shopping center nearby bordered by Rt. 320, Rt. 420, and State Road - Opposite of a Giant, A Well Guarded Cache, and Please Don't Park Here.

Wynnewood Valley Park - Wynnewood, PA
Includes Playground Area and Nature Features

You can't see the playground through the tree cover, but it's there.

This is another great park for kids. There is a large playground right off of the parking area, and some easy nature walks through the trees.  The cache in the park, Mega Mind, might be a bit too much for little kids, as its location is steep, but older kids should be just fine.

If you travel roughly northwest for a mile or two, toward Ardmore, you'll run into a ton of caches along the way.  A fun one for kids (Jack and I found a snake here) was Wampa Cave, located in South Ardmore Park, and pocktet cache located in the really neat, yet really tiny Linwood Park.