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
Over Memorial Day weekend, my in-laws visited from Maryland. Wanting to find something new to explore that is appropriate for both older and younger people, I researched the upcoming 
The instructor started the class with a coloring activity as the participants arrived. We colored paper animal masks of characters Badger, Toad and Otter from the book. Then, we constructed our masks with either popsicle sticks or string. After the coloring activity, the instructor presented material about the mill’s history and different types of energy. She catered the presentation to all age groups and made it especially interactive for the young ones. Next, the instructor walked us through creating a boat from an Altoid box and powered by stored-up rubber band energy. She related the craft to the energy lesson and also read from The Wind in the Willows story.
After everyone finished making their boats, we headed outside to the docks to launch our boats. Sure enough, our wound-up rubber bands caused the plastic paddles to propel the boats a few feet into the water. The instructor came prepared with a net to scoop up the boats so the kids could try again. The entire program was a perfect combination of creating, science, and hands-on experimenting for this age group.
Who’s up for a last minute visit to Yosemite with young kids during the super busy summer months? We are! Capitalizing on our successful Norther Ca trip, we rolled the dice on our final full day and drove our family two hours west to explore Yosemite for the day. With plans to rendezvous at my uncle’s rural 1910s family cabin situated on original Yosemite roads, we left early in the morning with a full tank of gas, fully charged iPads, open minds, and lots of food.
Since the Yosemite trip was last minute, intermittent cell service limited my mobile-friendly research as we drove through harrowing switchbacks and rural towns. Following my aunt and uncle’s advice, we headed to the popular Valley area of Yosemite in hopes that we could catch glances of El Capitan, Half Dome and some of the waterfalls. Driving from Sonora, Ca we drove along 120 East through Groveland and the Big Oak Flat Entrance. The drive through Yosemite starts out hilly with dense conifers and then becomes hillier with sparse shrubs, dead underbrush, sand, rocks and old dying pine trees. Then, suddenly before crossing into the big tunnel, the massive granite rocks explode before your eyes. You catch really quick (yet far away) views of El Capitan and Half Dome before going through the tunnel. After the tunnel you wind through switchbacks catching different views of the granite formations. Yosemite is enormous – it takes at least 40 minutes to drive from the main entrance to the bottom of the park.
Knowing the park would be busy, we aimed for short hikes easy in difficulty and with easy access. Using the simple 
Lower Yosemite Falls Trail is a one mile paved trail with little elevation change making it an easy walk for everyone. The path is mostly shaded with giant sequoias and huge slabs of granite rock making for nice photo backdrops. About half mile into our walk we arrived at the observation bridge of the falls. Lower Yosemite is the bottom waterfall section of the three-part Yosemite Falls. Unfortunately, with it being late summer the waterfall sprayed a mere trickle, but we tried to imagine the 
Wanting to get closer to Half Dome I quickly researched places within the valley to catch a glimpse. I learned the meadows behind the Majestic Yosemite Hotel (formerly known as the Ahwahnee Hotel) provide good views of the massive mountains, so we rode the shuttle bus to stop #3 outside the hotel. The hotel was built nearly a century ago with the design influences of Art Deco, Native American, Middle Eastern, and Arts & Crafts Movement. We walked to the back of the hotel, through a small path and turned left on the pedestrian path. Before crossing over the pedestrian bridge we arrived at the best spot we could find with a good glimpse of Half Dome (elevation 8800ft) in the background. Even from so far away it’s amazing to imagine people (including my crazy aunt) hike the 16-mile round trip.
And so begins my multi-part series on public parks we explored in Northern Ca.  At the end of the summer we took the girls on a huge adventure to visit my aunt and uncle in Northern California.  It’s unfortunate we waited so many years before visiting them – we made amazing memories this trip and I’m so glad we shared it with our kids.
After exploring the park we visited retails shops in downtown Murphys and ate a yummy lunch at 
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.
Over New Years we spent time with dear friends at their parent’s new home in Murrells Inlet, SC. I’ve known Jennie since 6th grade and Bill and Jennie’s husband, Gary, became fast friends over a decade ago when we first met Gary. With growing families and distance (they’ve been in Columbus, OH) our time spent together has been few and far between. Lucky for us they are moving to the Greater Raleigh area this Spring so our families will get more time together, which is great news for us and our kids, as they’ve all become fast friends too!
The weather was unusually warm around New Years so shortly after arriving we took advantage of the remaining sun and made the short drive to Huntington Beach State Park, located at 
The next day we returned to the park to explore the Education Center, which is only open during daytime hours and offers daily feeding times where you can watch and learn how they feed several of the animals.  With about two dozen animals to look at and learn about, we spent well over an hour in the center.  They have a touch-tank with a horseshoe crab and stingray, a star fish, baby alligator, terrapins, snakes, turtles, and some hands-on exhibits about the nearby environment.  The tanks are at perfect heights for little ones to get in on the action. After we exhausted the Education Center, the kids enjoyed a snack on the outdoor benches and we ran along the boardwalk overlooking the saltwater marshes.  We learned about the numerous inhabitants – spider crabs, stone crabs, snapping shrimp, oysters, alligators, and lots of birds.  Even though we didn’t see any of the 50-100 alligators living in the park we saw several oysters and lots of birds up close!
Before summer came to an end we headed back up to VA for a final party at my mom’s house before turning it over to new owners. Â To counteract the bushel of crabs (and beers) we were going to eat that weekend, we headed into downtown Fredericksburg on Saturday morning for a run and some playground time.
The Canal Path is a paved 1.8 mile trail that parallels the canal until Princess Anne St where it then connects back with the Heritage Trail making a loop through downtown.  The Canal Path is mostly shaded, making it a great way to escape the summer heat.  We passed behind Mary Washington Hospital, ran under Route 1 again, ran by the Wetlands at Gayles Pond, and passed the 
