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This can be a super cheap day out, especially if you take a picnic. You do have to pay for parking which is around £6 for all day parking.
At the main entrance of Cannock Chase you will find a little coffee shop, a park and toilets, this is also the closest place to park for the Go Ape trail.
We took two out of three of the minis here for the Gruffalo Trail which on arrival was told has since become the Zog Trail. But the big Gruffalo statue is still around, the activity pack is expensive for what you get, I think it was £3.00 for a brown paper bag, which included a Zog mask, an activity sheet, a 3D revealer to use on the signs to find hidden creatures, and some stickers. We bought one between them due to the price, and they weren’t all that bothered to be honest, they liked the activity sheet and used it to locate some of the animals.
Some of the Gruffalo characters are still around but look very tired and worn, they could probably do with coming down. The Zog trail isn’t really that interesting I certainly wouldn’t spend money on the activity things again, you’d do better printing out activities yourself, so the kids can find trees, flowers, wildlife etc. Which might be more interesting for them.
They loved finding the Gruffalo at the end, which is a little confusing when you’re looking for Zog who is a small wooden figure sign after the Gruffalo. But the kids loved it so, I suppose I can’t complain too much. There’s some big metal chairs near by which I assume is some kind of art installation, there was no information I could find to explain what they were or why they were there.
There are several parks for the kids to go wild on and it is a nice little walk, but the trail is very short I suppose with toddlers legs in mind, you could have done this in about 40 mins so bare that in mind when paying for parking.
Kris found it mostly accessible, there is a biggish slope to get up from the cafe towards Go Ape, which is the start of the Zog Trail, but otherwise it was pretty flat and easy enough for him to get round. Their website is really good for telling you which of their trails are wheelchair / pushchair friendly and what the gradient is like. Find info here
The cafe isn’t too bad in price well for coffee anyway, the Saturday we went it was mostly run by just out of high school kids, and it does seem to get very busy very quickly.
It was nice for a change as we usually go to Kingsbury Waterpark for walks and a play on the park, I wouldn’t frequent here mostly due to parking costs and distance for us to travel, takes maybe 40mins for us. It is a huge place with several entrances so check where you want to go and which entrance you will need, otherwise you could find yourself miles away from where you actually need to be.
It was a little chilly when we went so I would love to go back with all three kids, when it’s actually a bit warmer (if summer ever arrives!) and I’ll do a little activity sheet for the three of them to find things on the way around and maybe even print out a Zog mask each for them to decorate.
Nicci xx
