Nice park, as beautiful as the location dictates. Senior friendly. I'm a senior and require a…read morerollator to walk any distance and the paths were accommodating.

Simple neighborhood park, came from FL with my 3.5 y.o. daughter and was looking for something easy…read moreand accessible. Not much parking but didn't matter in our case as there were a few open spots the afternoon we went. Not a whole lot of shade and a couple benches/tables throughout.

Brought my kids here for my son's first birthday on a whim. Although there was a small section for…read moresuch little guys, it's really not suited for the tiny ones. My older two loved it! The play equipment was fun and in great shape. The walking paths were very pretty. The building has bathrooms inside which is great, although more than half of the stalls were lacking toilet paper. There was a truck in the parking lot selling water ice which was super yummy! Overall great park trip.

I stopped at this large park to walk off a little of my dinner and digest a little more of my beers…read morebefore I got back onto the highway. It's a top notch park with a lot of features. Baseball, basketball, picnic shelter with tables, playground and tennis courts. Add some seating around the basketball courts and perhaps a few more benches around the super awesome playground and you'd have five stars. There is a large parking lot here and the building has restrooms (currently closed). [Review 15530 overall, 1034 of 2021, number 3069 in North Carolina.]

We enjoyed visiting this playground. The Toddler playground has three slides and is the perfect…read moresize for the little ones. It's partially shaded by the nearby trees. There's no benches but parents can sit on the concrete brick wall. The bigger playground is a short walk away. It has two big slides and a few little ones. It's perfect for all ages. There is open green space pretty close by. There are a few benches and even picnic tables around the playground area. However, there is almost no shade in the immediate area. There is an indoor bathroom facility near the big playground. They also have conveniently located trash cans. Parking is mostly along the road and a few spaces near the toddler playground.

We stayed at a dog-friendly AirBnB over Thanksgiving and found this nearby dog park. The parking…read morelot was a little difficult to find as the ground was covered in leaves, but we figured it out. This was one of the most fun and nostalgic dog parks I've ever been to - the entire dog park has obstacles and materials made from old McDonald's playgrounds, like from the 80s and early 90s. It was a blast from the past and very fun to identify which items I remembered. The pups both loved the park - there were tennis balls everywhere and it was surprisingly clean.

What a daydream this spot is so beautiful and a very easy walk. I loved coming in to explore this…read more park and we even saw some deer when walking here. It was so cute. For more recommendations follow@raleighunlocked on Instagram.

It's a nice park in the area! You'll get to expose yourself to sunlight and nature! Great place to…read moredo picnic or outdooring like fishing and playing toys on the lake! Cool place

Lovely spot to go for a walk! So many different areas to explore…read more Also lots of open lawn space to hang out for a bit! They even have little robot lawn mowers out sometimes.

Beautiful free gardens located on the campus of Duke University. You do have to pay for parking,…read morethough. There are several different sections. They include the historic gardens, the Blomquist garden of native plants, the gateway gardens, and the Culbertson Asiatic arboretum. There is also a gardens Cafe.

Mount Merrill Play-MOUND, part of Durham Central Park, is a true picture of what Durham is and how…read morethe community comes together to create and better our wonderful city. What began as a kickstarter project to make Durham Central Park an even better destination spot and give kids an activity, quickly took off. The community came together and raised $200,000 to fund the park. In addition to the food truck rodeos, skate park, farmers market and summer concert series that Durham Central Park offers, they now offer Mount Merrill, The play-mound offers two slides, a climbing net, great amphitheater seating, a ramp up to a "look-out!" area (you have to stretch your imagination here a bit), a boulder climb (mostly just piles of rocks) and lots of sculptural art (that was previously in the park and now is claimed by Mount Merrill). While Mount Merrill can't compare to many other play structures in the area, the tiny small mound is a lot of fun for kids of all ages (I too enjoy the big slide!) and I hope to see some improvements made to it in the summer months. Durham Central Park, with the addition of Mount Merrill, has quickly become a place for the whole family and a destination that I can see my nieces and nephews taking their children someday, just like I've taken them. Good job Durham, keep up the community building! I love the idea, it's just the size of the park that gives it a three-star, hopefully they'll add on to it in the summer!

We call this Rock Park because the boulders are irresistible and so fun. Lots of slides - big…read moreenough for adults to go down too. Nice small nature area for kids who like to explore.

First and only visit took a bit of a drive from where I lived but did not disappoint. The hiking…read morewas fairly level with a great meditative and uncrowded nature walk. Deserving of good hiking boots to navigate the trail's obstacles.

Nice park with many trails of varying difficulty. A couple trails were closed due to a past storm,…read morebut we still enjoyed our hike along the river

+ great space that the local community has worked hard over the past 10 years to clean up and share…read morewith Durham. + there's a skate park, artsy benches, animal statutes for kids (rockin' robin and mr. turtles!), the farmers market, quiet gardens, edible food garden (garden of eatin'), and connections to the east coast greenway. + it's amazing the stuff the community can do!

Durham Central Park always has a good energy to it, even when you show up right after the fun part…read moreis already wrapping up. We got here just past the end of a farmers market or maybe a street market, and you could still feel the leftover buzz from whatever had been happening. Bit of a bummer to miss it, but the space still had that relaxed weekend vibe that makes it easy to wander around and enjoy the park for what it is. I enjoyed the playground here, and yes, I absolutely went down the slide because why not. It's a great little spot tucked into a park that feels welcoming no matter what's going on, whether it's a full market day or just the quiet aftermath. Even without the vendors and crowds, it's still a solid stop and a nice way to spend a few minutes in downtown Durham. [Review 1166 of 2026 - 4815 in North Carolina - 26345 overall]

Wonderful trails for biking, hiking, walking (and also some trails are sign-posted to allow…read morehorses). Not crowded. Miles & miles of trails. Picnic tables and pavilions. Creeks and streams. Lakes and ponds. Boating. BE AWARE of closed trails, bridges, etc...stop by the park office AND check the website for closures.

Umstead is a great park with plenty of parking locations and different trail options. I hope to try…read moreout all of their walking trails. I've done at least 2 of their trails with the last being the Pott's Branch Trail. Pott's Branch is one of their easy trails at 1.3 miles. I recommend you wear tight/well fitting sneakers or boots as there are a lot of roots on the trails and you don't want to slip. Umstead does a great job of marking the trails and there were even paper maps available.

This updated review is for the turf soccer fields. The youth Rainbow soccer league uses these for…read moreweekly practices. These are nice fields that don't really end up needing to be closed from rain since they are turf. The parking lot can get very crowded. I recommend backing into a parking spot so you can exit a little easier.

Went on a Saturday- I will say a fair number of dogs were unleashed which is never good in my…read moreopinion. We had to turn around a couple of times to avoid other dogs off leashes. The parking at the soccer field area wasn't bad but I do know it gets packed at that soccer field but there was also a playground and a couple of trails (the longest was about 1.1 miles so we did a couple). The trails were relatively easy to follow and had posts with color coordination. Overall a really close spot to me so will be visiting again. I do think the trails could be longer but overall are nice. Next time will visit the water with the overlook.