We’ve explored Forest Ridge Park a few times over the three years it’s been open and it never disappoints. Forest Ridge Park is such a great addition to our city’s mix of parks. It fills all the buckets: biking, playgrounds, open space, hiking, nature programs, fishing, and it has clean bathrooms.
Forest Ridge Park is located at 2100 Old NC 98 Hwy in north Raleigh along a finger of Falls Lake. The park features nearly 600 acres of parkland with multi-use trails, a community center, playgrounds, a sand pit area for fossil digging, nature programs, mountain biking trails, and fishing.
Playgrounds
Just off the main parking lot are the large playgrounds, picnic shelters, open green space, bathrooms and wildlife garden. These areas are surrounded by a paved loop trail, which can be perfect for incorporating some biking into your outing. The playground for older kids features challenging climbing walls and ropes, zip-lining, tall slides, spinning chairs, swings, and balancing pieces. Most of the older-age playground’s features are connected, making it a super fun place to play “the floor is lava.”
The smaller-age playground features fun climbing walls, steps and ladders, single and double slides, and riding dinosaurs. Extra picnic tables with umbrellas are also conveniently located close to the playgrounds.
Trails
The paved loop trail surrounding the playgrounds is 1/4 mile long, contains a bike repair station, and has a fossil hunting sandpit in one corner. There’s also a large open green space in the middle perfect for pick-up sports and frisbee. When my youngest daughter started riding her pedal bike, this easy, flat loop helped build her biking confidence. The mountain biking trails are accessible along this paved loop trail as well. The few times we visited the park the mountain biking trails were closed because of wetness, so just check the status before coming.
The park’s hiking trails are located near the intersection of Old NC 98 Hwy. According to the interactive park map, the trails vary from 1/3 mile to 1.5 miles long, and are either natural or gravel. Visitors can fish from the Falls Lake shoreline by following the multi-use trail. We haven’t yet explored the hiking trails, but with so many and the close proximity to Falls Lake shoreline, I bet they’re easy, fun and packed with views.
Nature Programs and More
The Forest Ridge Park welcome center also provides explorer and art backpack loaner equipment for children and adults, along with nature programs. A quick search of upcoming winter programs showed several with spaces still available:
- Animal Survival (program barcode 263391 and 263392)
- Bike Maintenance course (program barcode 263395)
- Jakes & Jennies Young Explorers (program barcode 263414)
- Make & Take Blue Bird Boxes for Adults (program barcode 263418)
Thumbs up: challenging climbing areas, biking options, easily accessible bathrooms, plentiful picnic spots, variety of hiking trails, fun zip lining feature
Thumbs down: nothing to report
As you enter the KidsTowne playground area, the memorial honoring Kathy Carlisle Smith immediately catches your attention. The Town of Apex remembered Ms. Smith for her dedication to the Greater Apex area and making the KidsTowne playground a reality. KidsTowne has two playgrounds for the different age groups. The playgrounds have fencing all around except for the main entrance area in the middle. 
The older age playground features an enormous wooden playground with multi-level, interconnected bridges, tunnels, slides, and towers. It resembles a fairy castle because of its purple and green stained wood, fire poles, decorative paintings, play boats, and towers. Regular swings and a tire swing sit behind the playground. The girls loved climbing the ropes and monkey bars, playing hide and seek, jumping on bridges, and finding shade. They also spent a ton of time flying high on the tire swing.
Back in June, my sister and niece visited the same weekend we planned a trip to 
In May, we travelled to Nags Head for our annual trip with friends (and family this year, too) to run the Nags Head Preserve Yuengling 5k race. This year the race weekend coincided with the grand opening of Dowdy Park, located at the intersection of 
Dowdy Park features several play areas where kids can jump, run, swing, climb and slide until their hearts are content! The older kid playground has wide wheelchair-accessible ramps to musical and periscope play items. The ramp connects to stairs for climbing higher along a net bridge or to the ground via a rock wall. The other side of the net bridge features challenging ladders, a climbing tree stump and a fast, twisty slide. A colorful climbing hill with curved bars, musical instruments, balance beams, surfboards, bench swing, and merry-go-round are also located nearby. With the large festival and park attendance, it was overwhelming to keep track of multiple kids bouncing between so many activities.
The smaller kid playground features short steps up to ramps connected to a double slide. All the kids thoroughly enjoyed the nearby rolling slide. They loved making rattling noises as they slid down the bumpy slide. Across from the small kid playground is a wheelchair-accessible ride. It allows folks in wheelchairs to reverse their chair onto a ramp and swing. And, a playground near the beach wouldn’t be complete without a little sand – just follow the sea turtle flipper prints! Short pier pilings line the sandbox area, which has a large climbing sea turtle in the middle.
Also near this area are hopscotch and twister games, checkers tables, another climbing hill, picnic tables and benches. On this particular day vendors lined the perimeter of the open green space area. Park-goers filled the open green space area watching the performances under the covered pavilion. Throughout the park you’ll find pieces of art, such as the nautilus stamps shells, temporary art pole exhibit, and wooden paintings. Even though Dare County is mostly known for its beaches, I’ve always been impressed with the 
In mid-January we headed to 
Then, we walked a little further until we arrived at the steep zig-zag stairs leading to the Raven Rock outcrop. We carefully walked down the windy stairs, stepping to the side to allow others to pass us. At the bottom we reached flatter ground with easy access to the river and the enormous Raven Rock outcrops. The girls loved climbing around the huge rocks and over the tree with the tangled web of tree roots. Portions of the rocks were large enough to crawl under and around, making for fun hiding spots. We also enjoyed listening to the trickling springs dripping from the moss-covered rocks overhead. 
After climbing around the main Raven Rock attraction, we ascended up the windy stairs and finished the steeper part of the loop trail. We crossed the stream a few times and enjoyed looking for wild animals through the bare forests. Lastly, when we returned to the trailhead we passed picnic tables, a large pavilion and the entrance for the American Beech Trail featuring the Kids in Parks Track Trail. Though we didn’t have time to hike it, this easy 0.5 mile hike features fun adventures such as Nature Hide ‘n Seek to excite kids about hiking. We also passed signs with information about the canoe-in camping.
Writing escaped me this fall and winter. As I tried writing, my head jumbled and I lost my writing motivation. Writing is something that can only get better with practice, and I’m hoping in the early months this year, I’ll become more motivated and write more frequently.
The far end of the playground contains swings (tot swings, tire swing, regular swings, and handicapped-accessible swings) and basketball court. Tall grasses arranged in a fun maze provide a textured separation from the rest of the playground. The large sandbox area features a handicapped-accessible sand table and wall seating for grown-ups. The girls also loved the zip lines, which feature about 20 yards of fast-flying fun on cables; one zip line contains a bucket seat for added safety.
Over the past few years I’ve continually heard about the amazing “dragon” park in Cary with great play areas for all kids.  Well, we finally ventured to the super popular Marla Dorrel Park, which features the 
Beyond this playground is another play structure with graduated levels of difficulty that feature wheelchair ramp access, twisty slides, arched ladders, a fun rolling slide, interactive play items and so much more.  Tot swings, traditional swings and chair swings are also located nearby including a swinging platform with wheelchair accessible ramps.  The playground surface is mostly sand so bring your sand toys or enjoy the diggers; but wide paved sidewalks wind throughout making it easy to access all areas.  They even have wheelchair-accessible sand tables along the pathways!
When we didn’t travel this summer, we explored lots of different places in Raleigh – the library, nature parks, the pool, and trampoline parks.  After feeling like we exhausted places in Raleigh, we mixed things up and visited different places outside Raleigh.  First on our stop was the 
The splash pad costs $2 per child for non-residents (cash only) and is free for Fuquay-Varina residents with a Resident Splash Card.  During the summer, the splash pad opened at 11am so there was quite an initial rush and it was at capacity by the time we got there at 11:15am.  After about 15-20 minutes the attendant called for everyone inside the splash pad to exit while the next group entered.  This juggling of guests continued for a few cycles before the crowds naturally evened out.
On the way home from our mountain trip in West Jefferson we decided to take advantage of the close proximity to Mount Jefferson and pay a visit. Â Mount Jefferson State Natural Area is located just east of US 221 at 
We walked through the picnic area and followed the short Summit Trail (0.3 miles) up the mountain.  Although the website lists this trail as strenuous, we felt it was more on the moderate side.  Due to our haste planning half of us wore flip flops, but could easily walk the gravel trail.  The gravel path is wide and shady giving a cool mountain feel to the hike. Along the way we saw butterflies, rhododendrons, mountain laurel and red-starred flowers; though stop by the park office for official plant and animal checklists. We visited the bathrooms along the way, which were super convenient and an easy walk from the main path.  We passed access to the Kids TRACK trail, which is part of the longer Rhododendron Trail (1.1 miles).  Near the top we turned left to the Mount Jefferson summit, which has an elevation of 4683 feet.  I climbed out a little further to catch the beautiful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
