A very confusing place you can skip. The terraced landscaping is cool, but the overall park mainly consists of an active dog run, and the people using that have taken over most of the rest of it to go off-leash. All of the paths then lead up to a playground with toddler-only equipment…you see the problem. Most of the pathways are blocked off by police-style barricades, but when we visited, our toddler still managed to escape, get yapped at by a particularly angry dog, and run scared into a pile of dog poop. Really not a great visit and I don’t think we’ll be back to find out if it was characteristic or not.

A tiny toddler park, Ruppert Playground was poorly maintained and overrun by dogs. 

There were only two pieces of equipment, both small and designed for toddlers. Not a problem for us, since we have a toddler, although he did seem bored pretty quickly. He spent a lot of time running back and forth between the two pieces. 

The out of control dogs were frightening, and there was a lot of dog crap all over the place. The playground isn't gated, so the unleashed dogs could wander into the playground area. More importantly, the toddlers could wander away toward the dogs or the street. Some French barricades were placed around the exits and entrances to the playground to thwart runaway babies, but this isn't an actual solution. 

The disappointment is the setting was actually lovely, and if any amount of care was put into this playground, it would be a great place to spend a few minutes. There were plenty of trees and the playground area wasn't that crowded (probably because it was terrible otherwise). 

Our time at this park ended when our toddler stepped in a steaming pile of poo. I told myself it belonged to the dogs. 

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Named for Colonel Jacob Ruppert, a beer enthusiast and brewer.