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
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.
Blue Jay Point County Park is an outdoor mecca for people of all ages! Â We visited Blue Jay Point County Park about a month ago after hearing so much great news about the new 
After some playground time, we headed towards the covered pavilion where the Laurel Loop nature trail begins.  This was such an ideal walk for young kids – it is a well maintained unpaved trail with lots of shade, has several benches and picnic tables throughout, is only 0.2 miles, allows for a short walk by adjacent Falls Lake, and loops you back to the playground area.  All of the girls from ages 18 months to 4 years old loved exploring this trail, especially finding the dozens of caterpillars along the trail.
We then headed outside to the nearby fenced-in garden area for a much deserved picnic lunch. Â After our lunch we walked all throughout the gardens learning about the different herbs, flowers and vegetables they’ve planted. Â The biggest highlight for me was the “pizza garden” where they planted lots of basil and tomatoes. Â The biggest highlight for the girls was spotting butterflies and checking out the resident turtles and water snake in the small pond area.
