Climb the inflatable rock wall at Epic Bounce in Independence and look out. No, not at the parking lot, not at the mall. Look out over the bounce house before you. That’s 25,000 square feet of bounciness—about the size of 205 trampolines. It’s all your kingdom.
Epic Bounce opened in the Independence Center parking lot last month. Kids and adults are welcome, and weather permitting, they’ll be able to enjoy it into November and again starting in March.
For kids, it’s instantaneous fun. At their height, there is no parking lot, there is no mall—the world is nothing but bounce house. Some kids will simply bounce and bounce. Others will make it their day’s goal to scale the tallest halfpipe that leads to two of ten slides. Many will take solace scaling the climbing walls, thankful for the grippy socks their parents bought at the door.
Stepping in as a big person, that first bounce is heavy, and the second one is heavier. But you keep bouncing. You see a cool fixture—a big, conical stalagmite or a basketball hoop with mini basketballs all around—and those bounces come easier, then naturally, and then those shackles come loose and bounce out into the parking lot. You find your favorite spots—maybe the climbing wall or the slides. You make it your day’s goal to walk across the Ninja Warrior-like row of blow-up bulbs.
And everybody, no matter their size, will take on the detached inflatable obstacle course—which, before they added to it, was completed in a baffling 13 seconds.
Step foot back on solid ground, and you and the kids are on equal footing. A snow cone will never taste as good.
Tickets to Epic Bounce Park at Independence Center are $19 for a 90-minute jump session and $24 for a two-hour session. Kids under 3 and over 65 get in for free.