On a cloudy summer day we headed to Annie Louise Wilkerson Nature Preserve Park to explore the nature playground and do some light hiking. It’d been awhile since we’d last visited this park, and now that both girls are becoming more able to hike short distances on their own without losing their minds, it’s been more fun to take them along. This park is especially great for little ones because all of the hiking trails are short (less than 1 mile each) and several are shaded!
Annie Louise Wilkerson Park is located north of I-540 at 5229 Awls Haven Dr just off Raven Ridge Rd. Upon arriving, we visited the main park office to check out the Explorer Backpacks they lend out to children. Both girls were super pumped about having their own hiking backpacks to use on the trails. The friendly park staff showed us everything in the backpacks, which included binoculars, compass, nature journal (to take home), bug collection jars, park maps, and laminated animal/insect ID cards. After suiting up with the backpacks, we visited with the park turtles outside the park office and then headed towards the pond to walk the 1/2 mile turtle pond trail. We followed the mowed path and turned left on the trail to head clockwise around the pond. Along the way, we walked closer to the pond to spot the turtles and have a snack on the bench. The girls also spent some time drawing in their nature journals. After a quick stop we continued on the loop trail, which meanders through full-sun meadows around the pond. The girls enjoyed seeing the wildflowers along the way and were impressed that the grasses on both sides of the trail are almost as tall as they are!
After our short hike we walked through Dr. Wilkerson’s former home, which has been renovated into an Education Center for the purpose of being a nature park research center. The front room is a mini museum of Dr. Wilkerson, highlighting her career and time she spent on the farm. We didn’t visit the other parts of the center, but the COR website notes it has science labs, classrooms, and kitchen area. The girls also enjoyed playing with the working old well pump outside the center.
Then we headed back towards the front of the park and played in the natural play area, adjacent to the bathrooms and pavilion. The full-sun play area features a teepee, natural twig tunnel, stump stepping area, and tall grasses. Just down from the full-sun play area is a continuation of the natural play area in the wooded area featuring a large sand box, bamboo sticks for building, bamboo chin-up bar, sticks and dirt for miles, fairy house supplies, and short fairy and troll trails through the woods. The girls went nuts for the fairy and troll trails and loved walking the trails and trying to find the next “fairy or troll” character or house along the way. The trails are short, narrow paths through the lush green forest. After walking the trails the girls proceeded to make fairy houses on their own for over an hour. It was one blissful hour where a 5 year old and an almost 3 year old played together and on their own with ZERO fighting. I felt like I hit the jackpot! I just sat back on the bench or in the sandbox and watched their little minds work – asking each other for help, digging through sand and dirt to find fairy house supplies, exploring the trails for ideas. They created and it was so much fun to watch.
We had so much fun creating fairy houses at the park that we also went to Michaels craft store to buy our own supplies and purchased the Fairy Gardening: Create Your Own Magical Miniature Garden for decorating ideas. We spent the next day at home building and designing our own fairy gardens, which was a lot of fun! Visiting Annie Louise Wilkerson Park really helped transition us from preschool to summer and I’ll always remember the fun memories we made that morning at the park! We didn’t even have time to explore the free activities inside the park office, which we’ll plan to do for another day!
Additional Resources:
- COR park website
- Upcoming programs at Annie Louise Wilkerson
Thumbs up: short hiking trails great for preschoolers, friendly park staff, shaded nature playground, convenient outdoor bathrooms, Explorer Backpack lending program, enchanting fairy/troll trails and houses
Thumbs down: shorter weekend park hours
With our red wagon and balance bike in hand, we headed out on a clear, sunny winter day to explore 
Along our walk/ride we passed several beautiful settings including the refurbished farm buildings. This park was originally a working farm as recently as the 1940s, owned by the Walker family who grew produce to sell to local merchants. It was sold to E. Carroll Joyner who raised cattle until the 1990s and then bought by the Town of Wake Forest in 2003 and opened as a public park in 2009. The original farm buildings include a tobacco barn, log cabin, chicken coop and mule barn. The girls had a fantastic time exploring the different buildings, especially the chicken coop. Several of these buildings and the nearby settings also offer great photo opportunities.
So, for our hike we headed out to the 
So we set off and hiked for a mile until we came to the creek. Before heading across the bridge we walked down some steep rocks and had a snack along the creek’s edge near the remnants of the old mill wall. According to an information board near the parking lot, Company Mill was built in 1810 by Anderson Page and was used for grinding wheat and corn. It was also a popular spot to have fish fries, weddings, and social gatherings before being washed away by a flood in the 1930s. There are several flat spots below the old wall and near the water that are great for stopping. A friendly photographer took our picture for us and then warned us of some water snakes he saw (luckily we didn’t see any). After our snack we headed across the bridge and turned right to join the few crowds on the large rocks near the opposite side of the creek bank. Ashley loved scooting down to the water and got tickled when I told her she could take her shoes and socks off and soak her piggies in the water. This child was in heaven! And, after a short while later we hiked the one mile route back to our car. She was pretty exhausted for the last half of the hike home, but stayed in good spirits and finished on her own…I was so proud of her!
