The day after Claire came home from the hospital, she visited her first park, Marsh Creek Park in east Raleigh. Marsh Creek Park is located at 3050 N New Hope Rd and is bustling with a variety of activities. This park is most famous for its outdoor skate park, which was very busy when we arrived. I became more aware of this park after following Instagram user raleighstatic and his amazing black/white skate park photos.
When we visited the park, we spent most of our time in the back at the playground, which is fenced in! The playground contains jungle gyms for both age groups 2-5 and 5-12; both of which are great because they aren’t high from the ground and don’t have any large openings. Ashley quickly zoomed around the slides and ladders at the 2-5 age playground and spent most of her time on the 5-12 age playground where there are larger slides, more complicated ladders, and rings for swinging. She is totally into gymnastic-like exercises right now, so the rings were a big hit for her as was playing chase with my sister. The playground area is beautifully landscaped with different trees, bushes, flowers and hardscape and has several benches scattered throughout and a few picnic tables near the entrance. There’s not much shade at the playground and the surface is a mixture of the cushiony rubber and wood chips with concrete paths throughout, so plan accordingly. If you’re looking for a shaded picnic spot there are about 10 picnic tables located below the nearby community center.
After our time on the playground we headed out for a short walk up to the skate park in our new (to us) double Bob stroller! On our way we passed an ice cream truck strategically parked near the large crowd of adults playing soccer. After a few cold treats we were back on our way to the skate park area.
Other than watching my college roommates play hundreds of hours of Tony Hawk on the Playstation, I know NOTHING about skateboarding. It is a pretty cool sport to watch even if most of the skateboarders just stand around watching each other. This skate park has a street flow and bowl element and requires all boarders to wear safety pads and sign a waiver. Unfortunately I couldn’t capture images quite like raleighstatic, but I did enjoy introducing a new spectator sport to Ashley.
Up from the skate park is a fenced-in inline hockey rink with goals and bleachers and a large shelter with restrooms. We were all very impressed with the different activities available for the public to use at this park. Even if you don’t have experience skateboarding, you can still be a wallflower and catch a good show from the sidelines.
Thumbs up: skate park, inline hockey rink, large playground areas, landscaping, shaded picnic areas below community center
Thumbs down: lack of swings in playground area
