This small park is a narrow strip of grass crossed by a couple of paved paths. There are several benches, most of them in the center of the park. It’s a nice place to take a break if you’re near downtown. The park sits at the north end of Chavis Way. If you visit here, I’d highly recommend taking a stroll down the wide tree-lined sidewalk of Chavis Way, south to Chavis Park. If you visit John Winters Park, I’d also recommend visiting nearby Cooke Street, a neighborhood on the edge of Historic Oakwood known for it’s yearly street carnival. Cooke Street is also home to an urban greenway.

On the day I visited John Winters Park, I had a very nice time biking from the Lions Park (I’ll be posting about it soon) to the Lane Street Mini Park, down Chavis Way and along the new Little Rock Greenway to the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center. From the Wetlands Center, you can head east or west along the Walnut Creek Greenway system. I live in North Raleigh and usually visit downtown by car. I was very pleased to find that this area of Raleigh is easily navigated by bike.

With the help of dozens of community volunteers and the guidance of neighborhood activist Octavia Rainey, the city and KaBOOM! teamed up to build a new playground at the Lane Street park. The new park makes good use of the established trees to provide shade for a play area for younger children. Some grading and a retaining wall improved use of the existing space and lighting and a fence around the new basketball courts help provide some security at night.

The playground has some nice features – a climbing wall and a rope bridge are stand-outs. And the play areas are separated, so there’s age-appropriate equipment for the younger kids apart from equipment for the older ones. The nearby building houses bathrooms and a water fountain.

I was impressed with the mountain-biking trail at the park. I was expecting it to be pretty watered-down and “safe”, but the 2-mile trail has some decent technical features that should please more-experienced bikers There’s also a ‘skills area’ for honing your abilities that groups several technical features together in a small area.

Paved trails that loop a smaller hill on the property connect to the nearby greenway in Falls River that follows Spring Branch Creek. This is the same greenway that will be part of the Neuse River Greenway that I’ve mentioned a couple of times. The NRG will start at the dam at Falls Lake and continue along the Neuse to the Johnson County line, making connections along the way to the WRAL soccer fields, the Horseshoe Farm Park, Anderson Point Park and the big east-west Raleigh Greenways (Walnut Creek, Crabtree Creek).

If you’re in the mood for a hike (or a short bike), you can go to the top of the grassy hill that dominates the park. At about 470 feet above sea-level, this point will give you a view of downtown Raleigh on a clear day. The trail climbs about 120 vertical feet at an 8-10% grade. It’s a nice little workout.

The strangest feature of the park, though, is a vestige of it’s former use. In the back corner of the park, in an area that’s not open to visitors, there’s a huge torch that burns off excess methane collected from the decaying trash. It’s pretty amazing-looking. And I’ve gotten a couple of questions about smell… During my visit, I didn’t detect any of the “landfill funk” that you could smell when the site was a functioning landfill.

Millbrook Exchange Park is probably best known for its swimming pool and its tennis center. A popular venue for area swim clubs, the pool was renovated in 2007 to include a bubble that allows year-round use. The nearby wading pool and spray-ground are seasonal. The tennis center offers 23 hard surface courts with lights as well as a pro-shop and a conference center.

Millbrook Exchange Park is home to Raleigh’s oldest off-leash dog park. The park is open to dogs from sunrise until the lights go out — usually around 10pm. The Friends of Millbrook Dog Park keeps up with events and updates of interest to area dog owners.

The community center at the Millbrook Exchange Park includes classrooms, basketball courts and a weight room. Just outside the community center is a sandy playground area. The park also includes 3 lighted ball fields and 2 basketball courts.

A new senior center is slated for completion at the park in November of 2011. Here’s a link to a rendering of the senior center and a map (PDF)  that shows its placement within the site. This is one of two senior centers expected to open by the end of 2011.

You may recall that I posted in March about a new aquatic center that’s planned for the Buffalo Road Athletic Park. The aquatic center is scheduled to be completed in October of 2011. One of the goals for the new aquatic center is to be a destination for recreational swimming and free up some much-needed time at the Millbrook Exchange pool for swim teams and meets.

Insider tip: If you go to the park when there’s a swim meet, ball game or tennis match, it’s possible that you’re going to have a hard time finding parking. If you exit the park and turn right, Rainwater Road will be your first right. There’s a path entrance to the park on this road on the right-hand side. Look for the wooden barriers keeping vehicles off the trail. The path will lead to the community center and swimming pool.

The new playground was built to be accessible and “barrier free”, implementing wide, gradual sidewalks and a seamless poured-in-place rubber play surface. The new play area includes some interesting elements that stimulate sight and hearing. The playground was constructed with the help of two $20,000 grants. One was from the All Kids Can program of the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust in cooperation with Boundless Playgrounds, Inc. The other grant came from Wake County and Eat Smart, Move More NC.

The new community center is a beautiful 24,000 square-foot building that was built with an eye toward sustainability and being “green”. Heating and cooling are maintained by automated systems for maximum efficiency. The need for electrical lighting is minimized using daylighting principles and the center’s water is heated by solar energy. Inside, you’ll find a large, dividable multi-purpose room for classes or events, an art room, a computer lab, a fitness room and a full air-conditioned gym with true hardwood flooring. Designs for the building also meet state and city requirements so that the building may be used for child care. Below the front of the building, near the main entrance, there is an additional 5,000 square-foot covered outdoor area that will be used for programs.

Landscaping around the center and the playground includes drought-tolerant plantings to minimize water requirements. As is the case with many of the new Parks and Recs projects that have opened recently, funding for the new center was covered by the 2003 Parks and Greenway Bond.

One of the big draws for Marsh Creek continues to be the innovative skate park that opened in May of 2009. The park includes a deep swimming-pool like bowl area and a horizontal-flow area that has elements like curbs and railings. Blogger Harsh Creak has posted some great photos of the park and local filmmaker Netposer has posted some video of the bowl.

Marsh Creek also includes a lighted ball-field, a multi-purpose and an inline hockey rink.

The park’s cottage and outdoor amphitheater are popular spots for weddings and can be rented by the hour. There are also a couple of rentable picnic shelters.

If you’re coming to the park to hike or visit the playground, you’ll want to cross through the gates and drive over the bridge crossing 64. This wasn’t 100% obvious on my first visit.

Of special interest to me was the Greenway trail that starts at the outer parking lot (before you cross the bridge over Route 64). This ~4 mile trail runs north from the park along the Neuse and will take you through some nice wetlands and give you some pretty views of the river. There are a couple of parts of the trail that aren’t quite so beautiful as you pass some cookie-cutter townhouse developments that are devoid of trees. But the good outweighs the bad and this is a nice dirt road-style trail to take the kids on with their mountain bikes. This will eventually become part of the Neuse River Greenway, running from the dam at Falls Lake, along the Neuse River to the Johnston County line.

Eventually, the dirt road gave way to single-track and I stopped my ride when I hit some rocky hills on the trail near the 3.5-mile marker. I quit just after passing some steep stairs. If you’ve been there and can describe the trail after passing that spot, please chime in in the comments below! (Update: I took a look at the Raleigh Greenway Map and it looks like I qwas just a couple-hundred feet from the end of the “official” route.)

Also – apologies for the qualities of the photos in the gallery! I forgot my camera and took these with my phone.

A good sized picnic shelter is situated near a nice grassy area perfect for Frisbee or tossing a football. There’s also a small playground area and basketball courts. I usually like to dig up some history on the parks I post about, but couldn’t find much. Anything you’d like to share? Post in the comments!

The master plan for the park was established through cooperation of Raleigh’s Parks department and a group of committed neighborhood activists. The plan takes advantage of the natural beauty of the area, introducing amenities that minimally impact the site. When construction is complete (it should begin this Fall), visitors will be able to enjoy access to the river and wetlands, picnic and playground areas and connections to the Neuse River Greenway. The park will also serve as an example of sustainable design principles put into practice. Check out the city’s master plan drawing for an overview of the site. Raleigh’s website also includes links to the environmental stewardship recommendations adopted by the City Council and an excerpt of the City Council’s discussion of the park. Construction of this park is funded by the park bond passed in 2000.

If you visit Horseshoe Farm today, you’re only going to be able to (comfortably) experience a small portion of the site. You can explore the grounds of the farm house and the relocated smoke house. There are several picnic tables near the house that provide nice view of the fields. But, there’s not yet a well-established or marked trail through the wetlands and forest that surround the fields. The status of the park today is one of great potential. I look forward to visiting the completed park.

Honeycutt Creek Greenway

The city council has approved the alignment and design of the Honeycutt Creek Greenway.  When completed, this trail will connect the Bent Creek Trail near Shelley Lake (link to Google Maps) to the Mountains to Sea Trail along Falls Lake, with stops at West Millbrook Middle School and Honeycutt Park. The trail will be traditional greenway (10ft wide, paved) for most of the route. North of the intersection of Honeycutt Rd and Durant Rd, the trail will be an unpaved footpath.

Neuse River Greenway

The city has begun work on the Neuse River Greenway (NRG). As I posted previously, this trail will travel from the dam at Falls Lake, south to the Johnston County border, connecting to Raleigh’s major east-west greenways along the way. Other folks are getting on-board, too – Johnston County is working on continuing the trail at their end and there are plans to connect to the NRG from Wake Forest, as well. The first section of this trail, from the dam to the WRAL soccer fields, is expected to open in April of 2011. The company that’s constructing the trail, Stewart Engineering, has begun work just off of Falls River Ave near Ashmead Ln. You can sign up to receive occasional emails regarding trail progress on the NRG Google group.

Check out Joe Miller’s GetGoing NC blog for some more details about trail location and timing.

Forest Ridge Park

Raleigh is working on plans for what will be the city’s largest park. It will be built on 675-acres of Army Corps land just north of the dam at Falls Lake. Phase one of the design includes a welcome center, picnic shelters, hiking trails and a ropes course. The park will have two distinct activity centers, one just north of the dam (Forest Ridge South) and one that will be located near where Old Route 98 currently dead-ends (Forest Ridge Main). Engineering firm HadenStanziale plans to submit 90% plans for the park to the city within the next month, with construction being completed within the next 18-24 months. The plans take advantage of existing open areas and trails to minimize impact on this beautiful tract of land.

White Water Park

Things are busy around the dam at Falls Lake! Plans are in the works for establishing a white water park in the tail race of the dam. The idea for this was initially included in the Neuse River Master Recreation Plan in 1996. The plan has been described as “like Charlotte’s US National Whitewater Center, but without all of the concrete.” I’m sure I’ll have more to post on this as plans unfold.

Update: The Falls Whitewater Park website has a list of FAQs about the project. Specifically, they note that any comparison Charlotte’s park is an apples/oranges comparison. The proposed Falls Whitewater Park will resemble a natural river and be more like Reno Nevada’s Whitewater park than Charlotte’s paddle/bike/climb/eat/etc model.

Buffaloe Road Aquatics Center

The design has been completed for phase one of a recreational aquatics center on the site of the Buffaloe Road Athletic Park (another Google Maps link). This is sure to be a popular attraction. Focusing on recreation, rather than lap/sport swimming, the center will include a lazy river, a “spray-ground”, an elaborate water slide and a “vortex” for swimmers to enjoy. Portions of the pool will be deep enough for water aerobics, basketball and volleyball. The entire center will be closed-in and open year-round. The plan to focus on recreational swimming at this location allows Raleigh’s existing aquatic centers to focus a bit more on sport swimming (swim meets, etc).

Szostak Design has created a plan that organizes the site so that a future phase 2, one that includes a traditional lap-pool, will be constructed using the common areas (changing rooms, etc) established in phase one.

Watkins Road Park

The city is also moving forward on buying approximately 49 acres of land off of Watkins Road in northeast Raleigh. The plan is to build a large community park on the tract. These types of parks are typically staffed and include a community center, athletic fields and open spaces. This will fulfill a big need in this fast-growing area.

Raleigh recently broke ground on the Neuse River Greenway which will eventually travel from the dam at Falls Lake, south 28 miles along the Neuse to the Johnston County line. This route will connect to the Walnut Creek trail’s west end, further increasing the range of continuous greenway travel available to folks living downtown. Joe Miller has a good overview of the Neuse River Greenway project posted on his blog. I’ll be posting more about the NRG in the future.

This is an exciting time for parks and greenways in Raleigh. In the past eight months, there have been eight dedications of new trails and parks and one ground-breaking. Also – a special shout out to Vic Lebsock, this week’s Tarheel of the Week. Vic points out that he has the support of an awesome parks department, but Vic has been an important voice in the movement to connect Raleigh’s various trails. Congrats, Vic!