With the fall weather on our heels, it couldn’t be a better time to participate in Take a Child Outside Week (TACO), held September 24-30, 2014. Take a Child Outside Week is an national initiative through the NC Museum of Natural Sciences with partner organizations throughout the country. The program emphasizes outdoor nature activities with children to increase their awareness and appreciation of the environment. Here are several outdoor activities at local parks to highlight this program:
Umstead Park – various organized events that week including: Animals of Umstead, Hug-a-Tree, Learn to Fish, Millin’ Around, American Beech Hike; for more info search their September calendar
JC Raulston Arboretum – various organized events that week including: Leaf Rubbings, Garden Bingo, Plant Sale, Cloud Watching, Garden Storytime; for more info visit their September calendar
NC Museum of Natural Sciences – a few events that week including Nature Stories and a family-friendly event on Sat, Sept 27 at Prairie Ridge Ecostation; for more info visit the Prairie Ridge Ecostation TACO Events Page
Historic Yates Mill County Park – enjoy several events including Paddle the Pond, Apple Orchards, Mill Tours, Fishing Footprint, and an organized Nature Hike; for more info visit the Yates Mill Events
Blue Jay County Park – free events this week including Hopper Herding and Nature Stories; pre-registration is required; for more info visit the Blue Jay County Park Events
Lake Crabtree County Park – free scavenger hunt event on Mon, Sept 29 at 6pm; pre-registration is required; for more info visit the Lake Crabtree County Park Events
Harris Lake County Park – various events including Park After Dark and a Drop-in Nature Exploration; for more info visit the Harris Lake County Park Events
American Tobacco Trail – attend the Biking with Bats 3-mile bike ride on Sun, Sept 28 from 6-8pm; for more info visit the ATT Events
Durant Nature Park
- Durant Family Campout (COR Reclink barcode #161109) – Fri, Sept 26 at 6pm; ages 6+; a lakeside campsite will be your home for the night; have an overnight experience including dinner, a night hike, s’mores, a light breakfast and fishing; Adults $15, Youth $10; for more info check the Reclink description or visit the Nature Programs page
- Wee Walkers (COR Reclink barcode #161125) – Thu, Sept 25 from 10-11am; easy paced hike around the park; free; pre-registration is required; for more info check the Reclink description or visit the Nature Programs page
If you can’t make it to any of these organized events, check out TACO’s list of suggested activities and head to the nearest park or greenway and just explore!
By the way, what TACO activities in the Greater Raleigh area am I missing? Please let me know in the comments section below.
9/15/2014 Update: Since this post was originally posted, the City of Raleigh has compiled a list of TACO week events happening at various parks around the county.
So, after a Monday morning camp drop-off at Greystone Rec Center, Claire and I researched nearby greenways to explore using the 
After about an hour of exploring and taking photos of downtown Raleigh, I headed back to North Raleigh to capture photos from one of the highest places of elevation in Raleigh – Top of the Hill trail in North Wake Landfill District Park. I’ve visited this park before, 
Other than great views from the top, there are several picnic tables, benches, and a bike rack. Even though my downtown Raleigh pictures didn’t turn out as well as I would’ve liked, the whole experience certainly fueled my desire to practice and learn more about photography.
The playground area has two playgrounds – one for ages 2-5 and one for ages 5-12 with a large oak tree and mulched area in between that provided great morning shade for the smaller-age playground. The smaller-age playground has a rubber surface with two tot swings, ladders, climbing structures, one slide, and some fine motor twisty toys and noise makers. The age 5-12 playground also has a rubber surface with several climbing structures, rope ladders, monkey bars, a slide without side rails, and two regular swings. A big hit for the kids was also the stationary board with pretend car gauges and noises.
In addition to the community center and playground, this park also has outdoor full court basketball with nearby benches, a large fenced-in open field for soccer and baseball (and a poor attempt at kite flying), and great views of the freight trains coming and going. Combine this park visit with a trip to Tyler’s Taproom or Bad Daddy’s in Seaboard Station and you’ve got a pretty fantastic outing!
A few weeks ago, Bill planned a fun Sunday outing to explore the outdoor Cloud Chamber for the Trees & Sky exhibit (aka Hobbit House) at the 
and should’ve brought a carrier for Claire and let Ashley walk. Having two adults made it easier to maneuver the stroller over the bridges, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
So, after a short walk through the wooded section we found the Cloud Chamber house, which looks like a replica of Bilbo Baggins’ house. It’s a short, circular house built into the side of the hill with large stones, some criss-crossed logs, and a green plant-based roof. It has a concrete floor and a heavy wooden door and the house’s neat feature is that it acts as a camera obscura. After entering the house, close the door and wait for your eyes to adjust to the darkness and you’ll see faint views of the sky as light is projected through an opening in the roof onto the floor of the house. Bill took Ashley into the house by themselves but didn’t stay long and then I went in by myself and witnessed puffs of sky inverted on the floor…it was neat to be able to look “down” onto the sky! And, I don’t think we’ll ever forget our trip to the Hobbit House with Ashley asking where are the “wobbits” every minute; poor girl was expecting to see some real life hobbits.
We then continued our walk along the loop trail where we also saw the Untitled exhibit by Ledelle Moe, which looked like a small concrete person concrete curled into a ball. After completing the loop trail we headed back to the gravel path and turned right. We headed downhill and came across the Whisper Bench exhibit, which was a fun interactive piece of art for Ashley. It’s two steel benches on opposite sides of the trail that are connected by an underground sound pipe. Ashley and Bill enjoyed talking back and forth to each other and I loved hearing the toddler giggles! After the Whisper Bench we continued on the very sunny gravel path that led us uphill and back to the paved trail near Lowe’s Pavilion. Finally, we stopped for a quick picnic lunch inside the pavilion before heading home for naps.
The pavilion area was great in that it could hold large family gatherings with nearby parking, but the amount of trash scattered throughout the area was disturbing. In reality, the problem seemed to be that the trashcans were light enough to be tipped over by small animals so some heavy duty trashcans with lids would probably solve that problem. The nearby horseshoe pit and sand volleyball court would probably get more use if they were raked and maintained more frequently.
All in all, this park had several great features despite some maintenance needs. And, it was nice to see so many people enjoying the soccer fields so early in the morning. Hopefully as the county continues to grow, more people will visit the local parks and draw more attention to what fun kids can have here!
We turned right heading south onto the Neuse River Trail and we shortly came upon the 11.5 mile marker and a large bridge that crossed the Neuse River. It had rained a lot in Raleigh over the weeks leading up to Memorial Day weekend, so the water levels were still pretty high and the river was flowing fast, which made for great toddler conversations.
The run home felt much shorter with several less stops than the way out. When we arrived back into Buffaloe Road Park, we followed signs to the athletic park instead of to the aquatic center. With this option, we ran along the northern perimeter of the park and got to witness the massiveness of the baseball fields. When we got back to our car, we were pooped! Ashley made a final pit stop in the restroom facilities near the closed playground and then we headed out for some well deserved lunch. I look forward to taking the girls back to the park later this summer when the playground surface is finished.
All of the play areas at this park are situated on the rubberized surface, but unfortunately there isn’t any natural shade, so on warm days like this one the heat was beating down on us and we couldn’t even put Claire down to play. Ashley seemed pretty worn out from the weekend so she spent most of her time swinging.
After some playground time we busted out our princess kite in the nearby open space. We had the park to ourselves this morning which proved to be crucial when giving a 3-year old a kite – she ran all over the place instructing her kite to “C’mon on, kite!” It was super cute watching her fly the kite, until she ran into some small, unnecessary stumps located in the middle of the open space.
MacDonald Woods Park has playground areas for the 2-5 and 5-12 age groups with two swings for both groups. The 5-12 age playground is rather large with several ladders and slides, monkey bars, and climbing wall with rope. The loop-shaped ladder was by far a challenging favorite for this duo. The younger playground is very small with only 2 slides, steps and a platform ladder. There are a few bouncy rides and a small low-to-the-ground structure for early walkers. A small elevated sandbox is located between the two playground areas. But, by far, the best feature of this park is the merry-go-round. Yes, that’s right…they have a merry-go-round! Go Cary! Of all the parks we’ve been to this was a first so you can imagine the confusion when the girls first saw it. Having never been on a merry-go-round they watched several groups of people get on and off before getting on with a group of toddler girls. These sweet maniacs quickly caught on as to why you hold on to the bars but also moved into more challenging feats such as dangling their feet over the edge. That proved to be rather anxiety-ridden for us but they had fun and no one went flying off the thing, so it was a success!
