St. George with kids.

Thunder Junction is the all abilities playground inside Tonaquint Park on Dixie Drive, one of the larger city parks in south St. George. The equipment is built so a child in a wheelchair can climb the same structures as everybody else rather than watch from the side, and the whole park is free and open seven days a week.

The two things that turn it into a summer stop are the splash pad and the train. The splash pad costs nothing, and a quarter scale train loops a long track through the park for two dollars a ride. Together they can hold a long morning, which is exactly what a 105 degree afternoon asks of a plan.

The wider park has shaded lawns, and the paved paths connect it into the Virgin River trail network if anybody still has energy left.

Pioneer Park sits on the ridge above downtown, and it is red sandstone shaped like a jungle gym: fins to climb, small arches to walk through, narrow slots to squeeze along, and ledges that look out over the whole valley. There is no fee, no gate and no fixed route, and kids read the rock immediately.

It works for a wide spread of ages, because a four year old and a fourteen year old can each find something to do within the same fifty yards of sandstone. Carry more water than the short walk suggests, and go in the morning or the last hour of daylight.

Snow Canyon State Park does the two things kids respond to fastest: caves and a narrow canyon. The lava tubes are short drops down into collapsed pockets of an old flow, and with a flashlight for each person they read as a real cave at almost any age. Jenny's Canyon is a short walk into a genuine slot in the sandstone, narrow enough to touch both walls at once.

Add the Petrified Dunes, open rolling waves of frozen sand you can walk out onto in whatever direction looks good, and you have a full morning. Jenny's Canyon closes for part of the year while raptors nest, so check before you drive out. The whole park is covered on the Snow Canyon guide.

From late June into September, water stops being an option and becomes the plan. The Sand Hollow Aquatic Center on the northwest side at 1144 North 2400 West is the city's year round pool complex: a lap and diving pool with a climbing wall, and a separate leisure pool with a zero depth entry, water toys, a water walk and a slide. Kids 13 and under need somebody 18 or older in the building with them.

Beyond the pool: the splash pads at Tonaquint and Town Square, both free, and half an hour east the reservoirs. Sand Hollow is warm blue water against red sand with a beach, and Quail Creek next door is colder and quieter. Neither has lifeguards. The head to head is on the Sand Hollow guide.

Town Square Park anchors the downtown historic district on Main Street, and it is the rare downtown stop that works in every season. A restored antique carousel, brought over from Chicago, sits in a pavilion at the edge of the square, and a token to ride it costs two dollars. The children's museum next to it gives the square an indoor half for the hottest and coldest hours.

The rest of the green is water in the warm months: a splash pad fountain that shoots jets overhead, a shallow stream to cool your feet in, and a splashing waterfall, all ringed by shade pavilions and grass. Between the carousel, the museum and the water, a morning here costs almost nothing and nobody has to hike anywhere.

The Red Hills Desert Garden sits on the ridge along Red Hills Parkway, a short, easy, free stop that fits neatly onto the end of a Pioneer Park visit. It is a walkable garden of desert plants with paths and interpretive signs, and it is the kind of place that takes twenty minutes and asks nothing of anybody.

From there the Red Hills Parkway Trail runs the ridge for roughly four miles with the city on one side and sandstone on the other, so you can take as much or as little of it as the day supports. It is a good pressure valve when a bigger plan falls apart.

The honest indoor list is short, and it is worth knowing before you need it. The children's museum at Town Square, the Dinosaur Discovery Site and the St. George Art Museum each fill an hour well, and the Red Cliffs Mall and the outlets cover the browsing and food court version of an afternoon.

In the evening, Tuacahn at the north edge of Ivins stages Broadway style productions outdoors under a red rock wall through the warm season, and curtains run late in midsummer because the canyon needs time to cool. Bring a light jacket. For a major concert or pro sports, people here still make the two hour run to Las Vegas. The theatre is covered on the Tuacahn guide.