Great Bend Park — Attraction in Burlington

11-23-21

Lot on Greenwood has about 10 spaces. Has bathrooms, trash/recycle bins, a picnic table, and marquee with map and also paper maps available. Gated so pay attention to the hours. A small lot, maybe 5 cars, can park on Mill Pace Road (Glencoe District). Has gate.

The Highland Trail is .8 miles and nothing more than an easy walk through the woods. Done it once and never again. Island Trail (.5 miles one way) is where the dam is. Plenty of rock outcroppings and views of the river. A few bridges along the way. Easy and flat trail. Wide. I imagine most would come to this park for just this section. It is a decent view. Aside from that, there isn't much here.

The Haw River Trail runs through Great Bend Park, connecting to the Indian Valley Paddle Access at the west and the Glencoe Paddle Access at the east. I find the Glencoe section of the Haw River Trail is the best section. It takes you through the Glencoe Historic District, by an old mill, and by Textile Heritage Museum. It is a neat area to peruse.

Not a destination for me but it has some value with the Island Trail and access to the Glencoe section of the Haw...

The trial markers are very easily lost in a confusing in and out of a trial. It comes out on a golf course and is very poorly marked on witch way to go. Pretty much made a guess and happened to be right myself. But we quickly lost the trail again as it came out on the road in a subdivision and was suppose to dipp back in, but we never recovered it and wound up using GPS to get back to the car witch was about a mile from where we came out on the road. I would have rated higher, but the trail markers need a lot of work to define this confusing trail and even though the trail has some nice views at points the golf course and subdivision kind of ruined a bit for me, I felt uncomfortable and unwelcome walking across the golf course and the subdivision though it had nice houses was not the scenic vistas I was looking...

Lovely walk by the Haw River. My Dad and I really enjoy getting out and exploring the Carolinas and getting a feel for the land around rivers, lakes and such.

So. We stopped at the park office and the Textile Museum. Wonderful. Can't speak highly enough of the gentleman from the park office at Glencoe that we ran into. He was amazing. We very much appreciated his knowledge of the area and its history. He was kind, professional and thoughtful.

We totally look forward to coming back and exploring more. Alamance County has a lot to offer, as does Glencoe. It's a beautiful area. Again, many thanks to the gentleman that helped us out so much. We wish we recalled his name, but we were so caught up in the moment yesterday and enjoying ourselves that...