Tired of Pavement? Try Walking on Ropes: The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail

Let's face it, we all get into a routine when it comes to the Disney parks. Even people who are visiting for the first time have a sort of pre-fab routine planned out for them: do all the big attractions. For more frequent visitors, it's the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" routine, where you visit your favorite attractions, and forget about all the others. Well, at least I have a routine.

The Redwood Creek Challenge trail original sketch

This routine had made it so I only see certain parts of the park every time I visit, and since I like to see myself as well rounded when it comes to all things Disney, on my last visit, I decided the monotony had to end: I was going to do every attraction on the map. I know, I've talked about it before (and thanks for reading more than one of my posts), but it was an instrumental part of the trip, and opened my eyes to many new things.

One of those new things was the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail in the Golden State area of California Adventure. I'd been to it once before, when the park opened, but I skimmed it more than I embraced it.

This last trip, I took some time and really explored the whole Disney's-version-of-a-jungle-gym in full, and guess what? It was great. I've always loved gigantic play structures, probably because that's the only size that has ever been able to accomodate me.

Realistically, anytime anyone thinks about a jungle gym, they think small children and ball pits with hidden surprises. A fair assumption that is...generally. At the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, there are none of those pesky height, age, or weight limits (unless you want to ride the tire-ziplines, then you're out of luck).

The course

The huge towers with webs or rope connection them and rickety bridges were almost more fun for me than they were for little kids. Running up and down them at top speed (probably a little dangerous), I whisked by many youngsters creeping up the webs with a look of extreme caution on their faces.

It was great being able to let my inner kid out again, having a playground that was big enough for anyone to play on again. And to think, I skipped the area because I thought it was geared towards younger people!

Next time you're in California Adventure, you've got some free time, and you want to experience what it's like to be a kid again in a more first hand point of view, then take a hike down Highway 49, and pull over at The Redwood Creek Challenge trail. Because you know you miss that good ol' playground.