Wrightwood Park

What it is:  So the weather was finally good enough for us to get outside for some park time last week.  We thought we'd take advantage of the time and head to a relatively new park that we had only been to once before.  Wrightwood Park is located off of Anderson St. near the Local Yogurt/Q-Shack/Rockwood Park part of Central Durham.  While we wouldn't put this park on our list of favorites in town.  It was a nice place to go for a diversion from our usual parks and had some entertaining features that kept us occupied for the afternoon.

It is small park accessible by a road that seems more like a driveway when you first turn off of Anderson at the park sign.  The road passes a baseball field on its right and dead ends at the playground area.  The playground area is small, but entertaining.  There is a small play structure great for young toddlers with a little slide.  There's also a tall free standing twisty slide for the more adventurous.  The park has several bucket swings at the back, and there's also several bouncy riders and even a see-saw.  While the see-saw is great fun and the boys loved it the first time we were there, this time we noticed that one of the springs had come unbolted making it a little less secure on this visit.  There's also a grassy wooded field behind the playground where kids could run without being close to traffic.

What we liked: When we came with very small toddlers that were just walking, the little play structure was just the perfect size.  In addition, the trees make this a great destination for a hot sunny day.  In addition, its central location in Durham makes it a great for combining a trip to this park with many other nearby locations such as Local Yogurt or even Duke.


What we would change:  It's location far off the road surrounded by trees made me feel a little more nervous about heading there on my own.  It is fairly isolated.  However, while I was there last time the only person we encountered that made me feel remotely uncomfortable was the grandmother who seemed determined to drag my young son on the large slide whether he liked it or not, very strange!  In addition, it was very unfortunate that the see-saw was slightly broken on our last trip.


Website and other important information: 

Website: http://www.ci.durham.nc.us/gis_apps/parkapp/park.cfm?selVal=park&ParkNam=Wrightwood+Park

Address: 1301 ANDERSON STREET 27707

Photos:

1. A view of the playground from the parking lot (You can barely make out the swings at the far back of the playground.)

2. A close-up of the tall, free-standing slide

3. A view of the wooded area behind the swings