I first heard about Palo Duro Canyon State Park a couple of years ago. It was February, and I wanted a good place to hike for a few days that was out of the cold, but not out of the USA.
Park headquarters at the entry
A couple of hiker friends recommended Palo Duro Canyon, known as the “Grand Canyon of Texas”.
After doing a some follow-up research, I decided that the park sounded perfect for my short solo hiking trip.
Lake Crabtree County Park is arguably the best in-town alternative to a trip to the beach for a quick fix of sand and time on the water.
View of the Observation Tower from the marina
In my opinion, any park where you can take your kids to paddle or even just watch the sun on the water is a big bonus – especially when you don’t have to drive more than 15-20 minutes to get there.
While Bond Lake and Symphony Lake are also centrally located, they don’t have nearly the size or water access afforded by Lake Crabtree.
Ice-sailing on White Bear Lake in Minnesota
I grew up on a large natural lake in Minnesota, with sailboats in the summer and snowmobiles, skis and ice-fishing in the winter.
So lakes make me feel good – and I logged a lot of hours on the Open Play field on the shore of Lake Crabtree when my daughter was little.
These days I spend more time hiking the 6 mile Lake Trail loop than flying kites. But you could do both!
Located in a forested area between Cary, Morrisville, and Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Lake Crabtree County Park offers visitors a 520-acre flood-control lake adjacent to a 215-acre wooded site, with 16-plus miles of trails, picnic areas that are perfect for outdoor games, boating, geocaching and catch-and-release fishing.
Years ago, when my daughter was about 3 years old and I was looking for outdoor activities for smaller kids, a friend introduced me to the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh.
For my daughter – and for me, too – it was a magical place.
This was partly because we were living in a rented townhome with not even a minimal yard, and partly because the arboretum really is magical! 🙂
But seriously, it does seem to be getting more difficult to find simple inexpensive fun outdoor activities for toddlers, especially if you don’t have a home with your own yard.
This is a real shame, because toddlers love getting outdoors to run around in the sunshine, play with bugs, and eat dirt.
Part of a border garden at the JC Raulston Arboretum
Fortunately for me, the JC Raulston Arboretum was only a short drive away, and was a great place to get outdoors and explore without any admission or parking fees – or even funnel cakes or anything-on-a-stick that I had to say “no” to.
Fortunately for everyone, although it has grown a lot in the past 20 years, the JC Raulston Arboretum is still a magical and inexpensive place to take young children to play outdoors.
They can feel the sunshine, eat dirt, and maybe learn a few things about trees and plants, too.
My friends came back with all sorts of great recommendations – most having something to do with goats, llamas, and alpacas – but also a lot of breweries, wineries and meaderies. Hmmm. Anyway…
So, I trimmed out all of the adult beverages (that will be a different set of posts!) and made a list of places to go see.
For my first visit, I narrowed it down to alpaca farms near me, specifically looking for an alpaca farm tour.
And that’s how I found M&M Alpaca Farm. Although M&M offers free self-guided tours of the farm, I opted for a scheduled guided tour for just a few dollars. I’m very glad I did!
Bond Park and Umstead State Park in Cary, NC are a couple of local places that I go to hike, walk and run that are easy to get to and always deliver a really good experience.
Minimum driving, maximum time on the trail is what I’m usually looking for.
Entry sign at Bond Park in Cary, NC
I’ve been using the trails and other park amenities both on my own and with my kids since I first moved to the area in 1996.
Like all of us, the park has changed over time and also – I hope like all of us – has improved with age as well.
Actually, I recently took an afternoon break to walk Bond Park’s Lake Trail, and found significant improvements to all of the the walkways and bridges along the way!
Updated bridge on the Lake Trail in Bond Park.
Read on to learn about the Lake Trail and other trails and combined routes inside Bond Park.
Have you suddenly become a home-schooler and/or a remote worker because of the new social distancing requirements?
Hopefully, this won’t last forever.
Meanwhile, you could take the kids outdoors for a hike to make it feel a little less oppressive.
Running a 5k with my five year old.
In spite of my asthma, I’ve always been an active person.
Becoming a mother didn’t change that, or my desire to be outdoors in Nature.
But it did change how I could participate if I wanted (or needed) to include little ones.
Here’s how I did it!
When I first discovered recreational hiking, I was working at a full-time tech job, a single mother of a toddler with few babysitters around, and my closest family was 1500 miles away.
So most of my activities (outside of work) included the company of my little Mini-Me, and hiking was no exception.
