Gold Park

What it is: We headed to this park for a picnic with some of our other friends.  While it's a bit of a distance from our part of Durham, from some parts of Durham it's only about 15 minutes away.  Perfect for an afternoon of fun.  Gold Park is located near downtown Hillsborough.  We headed over on a beautiful weekend afternoon and had a great time.

The park is fully in the sun, except for the picnic shelter, so be wary of that on a really hot day.  However, it didn't bother us that day.  They had two play structures, one for the big kids and one for the smaller munchkins, as usual.  The one for the bigger kids had some great slides and a few different things to keep the kiddos occupied.  The playground also had a set of swings. Gold Park also had some great fields for running, playing, throwing frisbee, and just having a good time.  They also had restrooms and drinking fountains which are always appreciated.

However, our favorite part was the trails around the park.  It has some great short trails around the park giving my son who just learned how to ride his bike a great opportunity to ride some loops that weren't too long for him.  If it wasn't for the tall grass at one part of the field, you could almost sit in the field and watch the kids go all the way around.  At one point in the trail there is also a great bridge that you can look over down into a stream.  The bridge pathway then continues under an old railway bridge and dead ends.  My kids always love to explore a bridge.  One of the other great parts of the park was that at one point we actually saw a real train go by on tracks located near the park.  The kids loved that part!

What we liked:  The trails going around the park were great, especially since both my boys are starting to love to ride their bikes.  Plus, the bridge and train going by were nice diversions.

What we would change: It was quite a distance for us South Durham folks, but not so far for those in other more northern and western parts of the city.  Plus, Hillsborough is a great place to explore, so if you're over there anyway it would be a great stop.  We also had to be a bit cautious when my younger and more unsteady son was up on the big play structure.  It seemed to have quite a few open spots where he could fall through.

Website and other important information:

Website: http://www.ci.hillsborough.nc.us/content/gold-park

Address: 415 Dimmocks Mill Rd, Hillsborough, NC

Photos:

 (The larger play structure)

 (the smaller play structure)

 (starting off on the trails)

 (fields for roaming)

(the bridge)