Slides, trampolines and more: Booming Twin Cities adventure parks draw families for big indoor fun

Inside the cavernous space of a Mounds View office park, one girl flipped expertly from trampoline to trampoline. Across the room, a boy climbed to the top of a bouldering wall, launched himself to a soft landing on air-filled pads, then scrambled up and did it again. Nearby, kids and a few parents began a game of dodgeball.

“I like that I get to just like jump and have freedom here,” said Addie Bland, 10, taking a break from the trampolines at Zero Gravity Adventure Park, where she bounced with classmates during a school fundraiser party.

The lively facility was among the first in a what’s now a rapidly growing genre of family entertainment in the Twin Cities, tapping into a post-pandemic desire to get the kids out of the house.

Compared to the smaller indoor playgrounds and community center play areas that came before them, the new class of indoor entertainment is bigger, with towering slides, ropes courses, rock walls and trampolines — and sometimes, heftier price tags for admission, from about $17 to $40 per person, depending on what’s included.

The adventure parks are coming in at a feverish pace as several national chains add locations or eye the Twin Cities. This week, Soar N Bounce Trampoline and Adventure Park, a chain with locations in Michigan and Pennsylvania, announced it had signed a lease for its first Twin Cities outpost in Burnsville.

Katie Heruth, owner of the local publication Minnesota Parent, said parks like this have been more common in other U.S. cities and haven’t appeared at this scale in Minnesota until the last year or two.

Now, they’ve caught on in a big way, giving families something to do when the weather’s cold, offering new varieties of fun, out of the sun and snow, under one roof.

“Families are looking to explore a lot more, so they’re willing to take that drive across town to visit a new park,” she said.

Before the pandemic, the Twin Cities were an underserved market for adventure parks, said Zero Gravity owner Ed Golebiowski. Now, he counts more than a dozen.

“The space is going to get very crowded very fast,” he said.

Golebiowski, who bought the independent park Zero Gravity in 2022, has watched the recent rush of adventure parks with curiosity. He said the supersized play places started to take off in the Twin Cities with trampoline parks over a decade ago, and Zero Gravity was one of the first such facilities locally.

Since then, Zero Gravity has added attractions including laser tag to diversify the offerings and keep up with the market

Many adventure parks fill sprawling light industrial spaces, where the rent is cheaper than more prominent retail buildings, and the ceilings are higher.

From a city perspective, adventure parks and other commercial recreation — think Topgolf and Dave & Buster’s — can be an attractive use of space because it tends to bring people in from other parts of the metro to spend money, said Eric Searles, Woodbury’s assistant community development director.

Mike and Annie Kelly opened the Twin Cities’ first location of Slick City Action Park, primarily a slide park, in Maple Grove this spring.

On a recent Saturday, the place was packed, with birthday parties and patrons — mostly kids but some adults — launching themselves on down gigantic candy-colored slides.

The Kellys became interested in the concept when they visited the St. Louis location on a trip to see family in 2023.

Mike Kelly said his wife called him from the park saying they needed to look into opening a franchise in Minnesota.

So far, he said, demand has been strong in Maple Grove. The couple hopes to open their Woodbury location, which the city recently approved, by the end of the year.

Kelly said he believes the Twin Cities could support up to five locations. For now, the couple is eyeing the south metro — Eden Prairie, Lakeville or Apple Valley — as a possible next stop.

For parents in Minnesota, he said, indoor parks have been a go-to for cold days or holidays when their kids are out of school.

“It’s not just screen time, right? So that’s what really appealed to us,” Kelly said.

Heruth, of Minnesota Parent, said families are still visiting public parks and smaller indoor playgrounds. But adventure parks offer another option.

Other reasons they’re a hit? Heruth noted Minnesota’s weather, and families’ desires to try new things, especially after the cooped-up pandemic years and as some parents have more flexibility in their hybrid work schedules.

Some parks let parents in on the fun, too, which can be a way for families to spend time together.

At Zero Gravity, Nicole Schindler kept one eye on her daughter as she explored the park. Other parents sat back on benches, some cracking open books for a little peace — even if the peals of laughter meant it wasn’t quiet.

Schindler’s family has enjoyed smaller indoor playgrounds, which have become popular in community centers and strip malls. But as the kids age, they’re checking out more adventure parks, which often cater to slightly older kids, or families with kids of different ages.

“It’s a good way, especially in the winter, to get energy out in a safe environment, but then letting them explore,” she said.