Well I appreciate the help. It's kind of what I was thinking but was kind of hoping there would be a bit of an easier way haha. I'm not too worried about the pole merging with the slide, as long as it fits in there and looks like it could be attached to it. It's not really going to be getting any close up shots, although I would like to make it look as good as I can just in case I want to use this playground for something else at some other time.
As of right now all I have is a pole sticking out of the ground and no slide going around it yet. haha

I'll have to play around with it a bit.

If anyone else has any ideas of how they would do it let me know, I'm open to suggestions.