sunflowers

Sunflowers at Dorothea Dix Park

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If you build it, they will come. 

Earlier this week, the girls and I visited the acres of sunflowers blooming at Dorothea Dix Park. In years past the City of Raleigh planted sunflowers along the southern portion of the Neuse River Greenway Trail. A white picket fence around the perimeter deterred most people from getting too close. However, the sunflowers’ popularity has grown exponentially over the years causing the City of Raleigh to rethink where to plant them. So, this year they planted five acres of sunflowers in an open field at Dorothea Dix Park. Based on social media feeds and local news it’s been a brilliant way to encourage people to safely visit the park!

How to See the Sunflowers

Enter the park through the Hunt Dr entrance off Western Blvd. Follow the helpful signs and park near the soccer fields on the right. After parking, walk through a dirt pathway over the old landfill berm and the sunflowers are located above the old landfill berm. This year there’s not a white picket fence keeping you from getting up close and personal with the sunflowers. You can walk among the many rows of sunflowers, but be sure not to pick any, and mind the bees! The City of Raleigh plans to harvest the seeds and process them into biodiesel for farm equipment.

Stay and Play at Dorothea Dix

Visit the park to see the sunflowers, but stay for a picnic, bike ride, walk or organized activity. Some of the best picnic spots in the park are near the Big Field (101 Blair Dr) or overlooking downtown near the intersection of Black Dr and Cramer Dr. After visiting the sunflower field, the girls and I drove over here and set up a hammock between two trees just up the hill from Rocky Branch Trail. They repeatedly biked down the nearby grass hills while shouting, “This is awesome” at the top of their lungs!

We stayed for over an hour swinging in the hammock, eating lunch, biking and enjoying the downtown Raleigh views. If you’re looking for a more organized activity at the park, check out their list of upcoming events including SunFest this upcoming weekend. SunFest runs from 2-7pm on Saturday, July 14th. They’ll have food trucks, vendors, local breweries, kiddo arts and crafts, and live bluegrass music. 

Get Involved at Dorothea Dix

The City of Raleigh bought over 300 acres at Dorothea Dix Park to turn it into an amazing destination park. They’re currently in the Master Planning stages with a renowned landscape/architect firm, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, leading the way. I’ve had the pleasure of attending several public community meetings and workgroup meetings. I always walk away in awe of hearing the creative ideas on the table and challenges being faced. 

There’s still time to get involved – attend the fourth public community meeting on October 4th or submit your ideas online. Catch up on past public community meetings to learn about possible park features such as a land bridge to Pullen, splash pad, renovations at Dix Hill, and more!

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Neuse River Trail – MP 22 to 23.75 & Sunflowers Field

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IMG_1945Near the end of July we ventured to the southern section of the Neuse River Trail in hopes of finding the beautiful field of sunflowers that were in bloom (from a hot tip by TriangleExplorer).  We’ve run or biked a large portion of the Upper Neuse River Trail, but haven’t done much exploring along the Lower Neuse River Trail so it seemed like the great thing to do before the sunflowers lose their blooms.

We parked in the small greenway parking lot near the intersection of La Costa Way & Auburn Knightdale Rd in southern Wake County.  After parking we walked down the short access road to the compass in the greenway and turned right to head south.  We quickly passed mile marker 22 and even though it was a weeknight we saw a good amount of foot traffic.  We ran over some small bridges, ran parallel to acres of old farm land that separate the greenway by rolling white picket fences, and ran under the Battle Bridge Rd tunnel before coming to the field of sunflowers around milepost 23.5.  There is little shade along this greenway so we were hot and sweaty from pushing the double stroller and happy to walk up the hill towards the sunflower fields.  Unfortunately, my timing was off so we missed the sunflowers at their peak and saw mostly wilted sunflowers that were losing their seeds.  The 50 acres of sunflower fields are used as an application site for biosolids from the nearby Neuse River Wastewater Treatment Plant.  They eventually harvest the sunflowers and use the seeds to produce biodiesel.  Read here to learn more about the sunflower fields.

IMG_1935We continued south along the greenway and caught a closer glimpse of a few sunflowers still in bloom.  We turned around when we reached mile post 23.75 near the intersection of Brown Field Rd.

It was a hot and humid July night for a run, so we took our time on the run back. We stopped for some much deserved Bad Daddy burgers and beers on our way home through downtown Raleigh.  I can’t wait to catch the sunflower fields in their peak next summer.

Hot tips for next year:

IMG_58802016 Update:

On June 26th, we parked near the intersection of Brown Field Rd & Neuse River Trail and walked a short ways to the sunflowers. They definitely seemed to be in their peak bloom when we visited, though the timing is slightly different each year. The girls loved admiring the field of sunflowers and I was so thankful to share this amazing scene with them.

Thumbs up: scenery of sunflower fields, beautiful open farm land

Thumbs down: hot, sunny trail in summertime

 

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