photo credit: Dru Bloomfield – At Home in Scottsdale
The 34th annual Mighty Mud Mania is today, June 19th, 2010, from 8:30am to 2pm at Chaparral Park, located at 5401 N. Hayden Road in Scottsdale. Parking is fairly limited, so there will be shuttles from Mohave Elementary School which is located on the northeast corner of Jackrabbit and Granite Reef.
Map of Park, Parking, and Shuttle Service
Mud Mania was first held in 1976 as a promotional gimmick for Johnson’s Wax “Shout” spray pre-way. The company handed out 300 white t-shirts for participants, but the Arizona mud was just too much to the pre-wash, so Johnson dropped it’s sponsorship. However, the event was so successful that the city took it over as the “culminating activity of all the Scottsdale Parks and Recreation summer programs“.
I’ve been riding by the park watching the preparations for the last several weeks. Thursday, I stopped to take a few photos of the pits that were all ready for the big event. I also ran into Jan Cameron, Director of Scottsdale Parks and Recreation, who was surveying the scene. She mentioned that the event was being held on Saturday this year, so that more parents could watch and participate. She said the event was also being held earlier in the summer so the turf would have more time to recover for falls sports.
Here’s another photo of a mud pit ready for water and kids. It’s huge!
photo credit: Dru Bloomfield – At Home in Scottsdale
Today, there will lots of mud pits (with age group designations), giant mudslides, sandcastle building, and a hose-off. Swimming at Chaparral Pool is on a buck, but you must have a clean swim to get in!
Below are a couple photos from last year’s event. It really is amazing how muddy everybody gets, and how many adults spend the day in this mud soup!
The Scottsdale Fire Department was and will be on hand to hose everyone off afterwards!
Event details are here: City of Scottsdale’s Mighty Mud Mania page
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Wow..!!Hopefully next year I could join that very exciting and enjoyable event,it seems that everyone had really a great day at that time..!Thanks for sharing the wonderful photos above..!!Good job.
I could really see that everyone was having fun at that time..!!I love to experience swimming on a mud.hahah..Some may says its dirty but I think that’s very exciting..!!