This Is Why We Love Smale Riverfront Park In Cincinnati

“Check it out – Gwen Stefani’s son is drinking out of the dog water fountain!”

Shae and I first visited Smale Waterfront Park in 2016 when visiting our friends in Cincinnati. While at the park with them and their kids, we realized that someone in the park looked familiar.

It was Blake Shelton.

A couple of minutes later, we noticed that he was there with the person he’d started dating a few months earlier – Gwen Stefani.

It turned out that Gwen had a concert in Cincinnati the following night, so they were having a bit of downtime on her nationwide tour. We didn’t want to disturb them seeing as they were there with her kids, so Shae took a selfie with her from a distance.

There was a triple water fountain in the park – one at adult height, one at kid height and one just off the ground for dogs. At one point, we noticed one of Gwen’s sons drinking out of the dog water fountain. Well, he was until their bodyguard went over to stop him!

There’s a lot more to Smale Riverfront Park though than hoping to spot celebrities, so we returned there while on our 5 year, 50 state road trip.

It’s a truly excellent park that first opened by the Ohio River in 2012, with additional features being added since then. A lot of money has been spent on the park over the years – almost $100 million – with about half coming from private funding. $20 million of that private funding came from John Smale who was once Chairman of Procter & Gamble, which is why the park is called Smale Riverfront Park.

At the top of the park there’s a splash park for kids to run around and play in. It was extremely popular the first time we visited in 2016 as that was a warm August evening. This time around, we were visiting at the beginning of April and it had snowed a few days prior, so unsurprisingly it wasn’t as popular that day.

Seeing as it’s a park, there are several large grassy areas where you can play and have a picnic.

The biggest selling point of Smale Riverfront Park is how much stuff there is for people to do. Most of it’s for kids, although there are several features that adults will love too.

There’s a small playground area with a few different slides…

…along with a climbing wall and rope bridge.

Moving through the park, you’ll come to the foot piano – a giant musical instrument you can play by stepping on the keys below.

There’s also a pretty unusual flying pig. Kids can climb up into the belly of the pig; the pig then moves up and down if someone climbs up the ropes.

If your kids are feeling adventurous, they might let you push it up and down instead to get some extra bounce.

Next to the Flying Pig are a bunch of water features kids can play around in. The water wasn’t turned on this time when we visited as it had been so cold, but it was extremely popular when we visited in the summer of 2016.

There’s an exercise zone with a balance disc, climbing poles, walking equipment and more.

Smale Riverfront Park also has talking tubes. When you stand at one end and someone else stands at the other, you can speak into the tubes to hear each other from a distance.

There are even more water features in the park, with these stepping stones crossing over a constant stream of water.

If you don’t want to sit on the grass to have a picnic, there are picnic tables you can sit at. These aren’t just any old picnic tables though.

These ones have wheels and are set on rails, so you can move them back and forth. This feature makes it perfect for large groups of people who want to sit together.

That’s not the only seating area as there are various benches and other types of seats throughout Smale Riverfront Park. Your favorite type of seating though might be the Rosenberg swings that bookend the park.

After spending a while in the park, we walked back along the Ohio River towards the beautifully-lit Roebling Suspension Bridge.

Beneath the bridge you can play giant chess and checkers.

A little further along, you’ll find the Pichler fountains that light up at night, as well as some rainfall fountains.

Final Thoughts

There’s even more to Smale Riverfront Park than what we’ve shown here. It’s a stunning park which is helping to revitalize this area of downtown Cincinnati.

If you ever find yourself in Cincinnati, this park is definitely worth a visit. It’s also very close to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center – here’s why you should pay that museum a visit too.