At the end of May family visited us for the weekend so we headed out on Sunday morning with my aunt, sis-in-law, and niece to explore a new park in northeast Raleigh, Spring Forest Road Park. I’d been wanting to check this place out ever since I heard earlier this year that it was going to be one of the parks to host the Hot Air Balloon Festival. With such a massive open area surrounded by a walking trail and shade trees it’s no wonder it was chosen for such a festival.
Spring Forest Road Park is located at 4203 Spring Forest Road, east of Capital Blvd, near a fire station, and not far from Triangle Town Center. After arriving in the parking lot, we took a short walk along the trail to the nearby playground. The playground is in a very sunny location and has a sandy base. It has several slides, monkey bars, and climbing areas that are all connected, making this a playground for ages 2-12. The first few steps lead to a small slide for the younger ages and a big step leads to a jumpy suspension bridge, two twisty slides, a covered “castle” area (deemed so by Ashley), and a curved ladder. After the girls exhausted my aunt on the playground they settled in with some sand toys that we brought from home. Being that the sand and playground area was so sunny, we enjoyed a quick snack on the nearby benches before taking a walk around the loop trail.
We passed several small groups of folks walking that morning and noticed signs advertising walking programs held through the City of Raleigh/Wake County on their information boards. They also advertised several zumba and kickboxing evening classes held here, which sound like a fun place to meet up with neighbors and friends in the evening. The paved trail is 1/2 mile loop with a few small hills and passes through some shady spots. The surrounding open space must be one of the largest open fields in the whole park system, especially if it was large enough to house a hot air balloon festival. We also passed a baseball field before returning to the parking lot where the large pavilion with restrooms and tennis courts with backboards are located. Several types of flowers were in bloom and the trees were full of leaves throughout the park making you forget it’s just a short distance from busy Capital Blvd.
Thumbs up: large open space, great walking trail, community walking group/activities, landscaping
Thumbs down: very sunny playground area
A few months ago Ashley and I explored Cedar Hills Park, just a fews minutes from our new neighborhood. Cedar Hills is located in North Raleigh at 
The playground has a wood chip base with a small sandbox play area. There are two playgrounds – one for tots and one for the older kids. Cedar Hills also has plenty of swings for everyone – four tot swings and four big kid swings. There are a few benches along the perimeter of the playground. Adjacent to the playground are the tennis courts, complete with a backboard for single play. The basketball courts are also nearby. The park sits amongst a dense forest, which is a great backdrop for the 18-hole frisbee golf course. Each time we’ve visited this park, the playground has been rather empty while the frisbee golf has been pretty busy.
This week we took advantage of the gorgeous Monday weather and headed over to Green Road Park before meeting a friend for lunch. Green Road is a large, open park with very nice amenities. It is located at 4201 Green Road between Wake Forest Rd and Capital Blvd. It has a large community center, two baseball fields, six sand volleyball courts, two basketball courts, four tennis courts with a backboard for individual play, a pavilion, and a large playground area with nearby restrooms. We didn’t have a chance to visit the community center, but the 
