Rio Rancho park becomes New Mexico's first fully inclusive playground

A Park Above turned six acres off Westside Boulevard in Rio Rancho into New Mexico's first fully inclusive and accessible playground, with wheelchair swings, a splash pad and outdoor musical features. The city calendar tied the project to a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, May 26, 2016, and the Rio Rancho Convention and Visitors Bureau lists it at 2441 Westside Court.

The park did not come together as a routine parks upgrade. A city sponsors page listed funding and support as of July 2015, including $1,263,297 in 2012 and $284,927 in 2014 from Governor Susana Martinez and the New Mexico Legislature, along with additional sponsors and donors. That financing trail shows a public investment built around access from the start, not an add-on after the fact.

Rio Rancho describes A Park Above as the first fully-inclusive and accessible playground in New Mexico and says it is a place where "all children can come together, interact, be included and grow, through the gift of play." The visitor listing calls it an all-inclusive park for people of all ages and abilities, and says it is ADA compliant with a fenced perimeter and self-closing gates. Those details matter in a city where families need public spaces that work for children with mobility, sensory and developmental needs, while still serving siblings, parents and grandparents in the same setting.

The park's footprint on six acres also sets it apart from a small retrofit or a single-play structure tucked into a neighborhood park. That scale, plus the custom features and fenced access, has kept A Park Above visible in planning and playground circles, including references from Consensus Planning and Playground Grass. A 2025 roundup of New Mexico playgrounds also singled it out among the state's standout places for kids.

For Sandoval County, A Park Above is more than a ribbon-cutting memory. Rio Rancho used public funding, formal city planning and a purpose-built site to create a facility that treats accessibility as the baseline, not the exception, and the result remains a benchmark for any other public space claiming to serve all children.