Best Twin Cities Splash Pad & Summer Entertainment at Nicollet Commons Park

Quite possibly the best “splash pad” in the Twin Cities award goes to NICOLLET COMMONS PARK in Burnsville, a water feature so pretty I’m reluctant to give it the splash pad label. It was, however, built with the hope that the community would do just that – jump right in and splash away the hot summer months.

It was crowded enough the day we visited; however this might have been thanks to their “Thursday Rockin’ Lunch Hour”, an ongoing weekly event throughout the summer. We arrived about halfway through Wendy’s Wiggle, Jiggle & Jam set, at our picnic lunch on the grassy amphitheater-style seating, and then the kids and I spent the next couple hours cooling off.

The draw to this unique park is the stream that tumbles, flows and occasionally splashes through the town-squarelike urban space — bound by businesses, residences and the Ames Center for Performing Arts. I can personally attest that it’s a lot of fun to start at one end of the meandering waterway and pick your way through the shallow rock pools and waterfalls, skirt the spraying frogs and fish, and track the kids all the way to the lagoon at the end.

Family Fun Idea: Best Twin Cities Splash Pad & Thursday Rockin' Lunch Hour at Nicollet Commons Park — Splash Pad at Nicollet Commons

For our master list of splash pads and wading pools across the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area, click here. Or, super-size it with our complete guide to TWIN CITIES BEACHES, OUTDOOR POOLS, WATERPARKS & SPLASH PADS.

About Nicollet Commons Park

12550 Nicollet Avenue, Burnsville 55337

Admission is free and parking is free on side streets. Get the annual summer lineup for Thursday Rockin’ Lunch Hour concerts here. Traditionally, Thursday Rockin’ Readers begins at 11:15am with kid-friendly entertainment to follow. Select Friday nights during the summer, Flicks on the Bricks screens at dusk in the park.