Sandy Creek Park — Attraction in Durham

Although off the beaten path, this place was pretty popular the day I visited. The little one and I opted for the woods trail which was past the boulders and over the creek bridge past the ponds/wetland area and up the small hill. We saw birds, frogs, butterflies, and bird-watchers along the way. (Please note, the trail wasn't a loop trail and there wasn't a map sign showing the distance or location of the trail.) Back at the main pond there were wildlife information signs. Near the parking area was a shelter for eating and a large open field where kids were throwing a disc back and forth. We also enjoyed the plants and flower garden near the parking area. (They had name plates for identification which was nice.) Overall a great place to get outside and enjoy nature and the...

This is one of those places that makes Durham great. Sandy Creek Park is a pleasant pocket park that nevertheless features a butterfly garden, couple of miles of trail (both paved for bicycling and through the woods), a lake with beaver, ducks, heron, and otters (!), and of course Sandy Creek. All this within the city limits of Durham! When you're walking on the woods trail, you could imagine yourself far from civilization, considering the variety of tree and animal species. The Japanese have a term that translates to "forest bathing": being in nature among trees, that is shown to have health benefits. This park is definitely a place to forest bathe! Bird watchers, joggers, families with young kids, photographers, all have a wonderful resource in...

This is a great little park for bird lovers. It has that blind where you can hide behind I so you can take some pictures. We didn't have to hide though. They were not afraid of us and so it was pretty easy to get some great shots of birds. There's a paved trail that goes to the road which is great for biking. There's also some more walking nature trails. Beware that this is a swamp and that means that some parts of the walking trail are going to be quite muddy. And in one spot you need to walk over a small stream which folks have very nicely put some logs over. But it's still a bit of a challenge. We met the guy who has maintained the bridge over 20 years. It's clearly a park that has a...