Petticoat Creek (Hwy 401 & Whites Rd in Pickering) recently opened a new aquatic facility with a splash pad, three wading pools, and a big pool with a shallow entry. It wasn’t the nicest of days – cloudy and drizzling at times, but on the upside there weren’t many people there!
You will need to pay two entrance fees: one for the park and one for the pool area. We paid around $30 in total for 2 adults and 2 children: $6.50 + HST park admission per adult and $4.75 + HST per person to get into the pool (2 yrs and older pay). Not cheap. The park is huge and filled with picnic areas, 6 of which can be reserved at a cost of $125- 300. Click here for more info. I took photos of some picnic areas when we were exploring the park and you can see them in the slideshow at the bottom of this page.
We started our pool adventure at the splash pad. There’s plenty of sprays including small ones which are of course preferable for younger children. My kids don’t appreciate cold water spraying at them from above and frankly neither do I 
My little guy and his friend were particularly intrigued by the two tunnel slides at the edge of the spray pad. I went down it with him on my lap and unfortunately got a bit stuck towards the bottom and had to wriggle my way out. I laughed when a girl came whipping out the bottom of the slide right after us. Sigh. Feeling a little old. There’s also a squirt gun at the pad which another child was having fun with. He made a friend and I jump when he turned it on our backs. Little punk!
On to the wading pools. WOW! Totally impressed. There are three and all of them quite big! The water came up to my knees at the deepest point. My little guy spent quite some time here exploring. It would be nice if there were some small sprays here too for children to play with.
The big pool has a wide shallow entry that gradually gets deeper. It’s a decent size. Lifeguards keep a close eye on everyone. You’re not allowed to bring in swim rings or water wings as they’re not considered safe floatation devices. One family was allowed to bring in some colourful rings they threw for their kids to swim to and bring back, so I’m assuming all other water toys are okay.
The pool is definitely not heated. My daughter’s teeth were chattering and I was very cold, but she wanted to stay in and was getting quite confident in the water. She was even doing a sort of breaststroke maneuvre with her arms and was up to her chin in water. Usually she’s on my lap clinging to me 
I think it’s time to put her in swimming lessons..
There are no picnic tables or benches but there’s a grassy hill surrounding the pool where you can have snacks.
On our way out I asked if I could bring both my kids by myself next time and the answer was ‘yes’! And they have life jackets you can borrow at no cost (a deposit may be required- the staff at the pool told me they’d need a deposit but when I called the information line later on they said a deposit was not required). Regardless, I’ll be better able to manage both kids if they have life jackets on. We’ll be back!
