Theme & Amusement Parks in Cottage Grove

Spread across 10 acres of beige grains, Extreme Sandbox invites patrons to re-explore the art of playing in dirt from behind the wheels of heavy construction vehicles. Participants 14 and older learn from highly trained instructors before stepping behind the earth-tilling instrumentation of Caterpillar construction equipment. Although most guests are first-timers, Extreme Sandbox’s obstacle course can be customized to challenge more experienced Cat captains. Individual packages for solo drivers include one to seven hours with the iron-plated warhorses, and group packages for up to 20 guests last two to eight hours. The oversize sandbox features outdoor observation areas from which family and friends can watch as loved ones create unforgettable impressions on memories and topsoil.

Pump It Up's Inflatable Party Zone balloons kids’ excitement with an enormous playspace that welcomes open-play sessions and private parties. Tots 34" and taller run and leap in huge bounce houses, soar down an inflatable slide, and practice for future zero-gravity triathlon events in a bouncy jousting arena and basketball court. Various open-play sessions give kids of all ages free rein to the fun zone while accompanying parents stand by to officiate bounce-house property-line disputes. Pump It Up also boasts myriad celebratory and special-event shindigs, with friendly staffers supervising jumpers, and serving pizza and favors in a vibrant party room.

Fourteen inflatable castles and games fill Club Just Jump with fun-fostering facilities that create a party palace for kids during open-play, bounce sessions, and private parties. Six predesigned party packages await giddy groups with snacks, decor, and activities such as face painting and spin art. Alternatively, an à la carte menu lets hosts curate their own celebrations by picking balloon bouquets, goody bags, and entertainment one at a time. Little hands keeping busy at the Furry Friends Factory stuff their own fuzzy creatures, choosing from 24 creatures that include unicorns, frogs, and industrial-concrete-supply reps. On Monday nights, parents can bring young antigravity aficionados to Family Fun Night, where guests play games, create crafts, and refuse to touch the ground made of invisible lava.

Lookout Ridge Indoor Playground entertains kids 12 years and under with a sprawling, organic playground that complements the design of the Central Park building in which it is housed. Like a powerful shrink ray, the indoor jungle gym brings the wonders of nature down to a child's size, with life-like nature sounds reverberating through caves, fallen trees, and tube mazes. Pintsize adventurers climb to the top of a treehouse and scale cliffs that resemble the St. Croix valley, or zoom down a 30-foot slide and navigate a foam forest. Parents watch their young ones and groups of birthday party revelers from comfortable benches and chairs in the lobby.

Maxx Putt Fun Zone takes the rigors of an outdoor ground game and translates them into a phosphorescent indoor experience that's fun for all ages. The 18-hole course travels the glowing, blacklit globe with holes in Venice, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Great Wall of China. Once 36 hallucinogenic holes have been successfully sunk in stellar style, you and up to seven friends and/or samurai currently protecting your village can enter a four-vs.-four war in the Balladium stadium. The Balladium ball blaster system is a fast-paced shooting battle, as well as a legally acceptable method for settling intellectual property disputes in Australia's Thunderdome-based judicial system. During each five-minute game, each player uses a cannon to launch foam balls toward targets, plus any opposing players, in order to score points and win the game.

An abundant number of recreational activities fill the space at Purple Planet 3-D Mini Golf. With black lights illuminating patches of neon paints, the indoor and always air-conditioned cooled mini-golf course bends the mind with challenging greens and mind-bending visuals such as aliens and floating satellites. As they navigate the course’s vortex tunnel and fog-filled corridors, golfers wear 3-D glasses, making obstacles appear to pop out and transforming every hole into an even deeper hole. Purple Planet visitors can also hone their billiards skills with games of pool or try their hand at the games at an on-site arcade.