Suburban Stadiums: Mountain View Adventure Center

MOUNTAIN VIEW ADVENTURE CENTER

History: What started merely as a miniature golf course has turned into an adventure park featuring a variety of different activities for kids in the Des Plaines area.

Mountain View Adventure Center now offers batting cages for both softball and baseball, two skate and bike parks and the aforementioned miniature golf course that is one of the most difficult in the Chicagoland area.

Mountain View Mine Adventure Mini-Golf was opened in August of 1992. Almost 10 years later, the Park District thought about adding on to the miniature golf course. In March of 2005, they re-opened and renamed the facility as the Mountain View Adventure Center, showcasing the brand new skate park, bike park and batting cages.

Now, the Mountain View Adventure Center is one of the most popular facilities the Park District operates during the summer months

“This summer we’ve had an overabundance of rents, corporate rentals, birthday parties, gatherings,” said Shelli Sarg, facilities manager for the Des Plaines Park District.

Features and Attractions:

Mountain View’s skate and bike parks give extreme sports enthusiasts a place to try out new tricks without getting in trouble. They feature a multi-level grind box, kinked rail, grind bench, curved, concrete grinding wall and half pyramid among other things.

“A skate park has a bad reputation, but it’s not,” Sarg said. “We have all ages, anywhere from 6 years old that come when it’s downtime up to 20-year olds that are still into skating and come back to our skate park because they like it.”

Sarg noted that the skate park is heavily used and is one of the few lighted skate parks in the area.

Mountain View has six batting cages for both baseball and softball players. They have various speed options, like slow-pitch softball, as well.

Still, the miniature golf course remains a staple of the facility.

“It’s a reasonably priced thing to do as a family and that’s really what people are looking for now,” Sarg said.

Unlike many miniature golf courses, the Mine Adventure includes a number of obstacles, including waterfalls, bridges and rock formations. This makes it challenging for all ages.

Events: The Park District puts on Late Night at Mountain View once a month. Ten dollars gains admission into the park with unlimited mini-golf and batting cages. The events feature concerts from local bands and there are also organized games of bags and pickup football.

“It’s a great night to get the kids out and it’s been fantastic this summer,” Sarg said. “Our lowest attendance is right around 100 and we’ve gotten almost 200 kids per night.”

Future dates include September 10 and October 1.