West Point on the Eno Park — Attraction in Durham

We come here often. Not only because we live about a mile away, but also because it's such a great place to get close to the End River and enjoy a pretty well established county park.

This may be the best park of North Durham, it's certainly one of the biggest with a variety of facilities and things to do. The historic buildings feature a few cool museums, but also we like to just come to hike the trails, swim in the water holes, and see various events or education meetings when they happen. It has plenty of parking, portable and hard structure bathrooms, dogs are permitted on leash, and there are a few picnic shelters along with plenty of scenic areas. It's worth a trip just to see the might of the Eno spilling over the dam near the lower lot, but there so much more to learn and see if you return.

WestPoint (like much of the rest of the Eno River trail system) is a gem that daily beckons Durham-ites to come see and appreciate the great outdoors. Go check it out if you haven't already been here and you'll see why being close to it was a major reason we decided to live in our current neighborhood. It's a great nature space worth seeing and definitely...

25 min hike to the swimming hole. Park in the 2nd lot. And head towards the mill. Path on the left brings you to the dam. Trail is on the left. Follow till it comes to a valley and a bench you are 1/3 of the way. Keep going it eventually turns to the the left at a little Vista with another bench trail bends to the left you are 2/3s there. Follow trail and it decends to the stream and comes to a narrow stream bed. You cross the stream and are 2 min from the swimming hole. Follow the path and you come to a beautiful swimming hole. There are snakes. Be on the lookout, we have seen three but they didn't pose a problem. Also path opens and there's a lot of rocks approaching the water. Careful they are slippery. However, once in the water is beautiful and refreshing and when you get to the inlet it has a sandy bottom. Some people fish here and we found a hook once so water shoes or sandles are a must.

Fantastic ...

This is our favorite outdoor spot in Durham to hang with the kids. There's a great old working mill (they even have fresh milled corn grits, pre-covid at least). We keep coming back to West Point. The lower river below the man-made damn (for the grist mill) is a shallow low flow area the kids always love to play in the water and look for animals. The upper above the damn is a nice swimming hole that gets busy on hot summer days. The lawn by the river is great as well for picnics, and the trails along the river are beautiful and we'll maintained. We have joined all over the Enjoy and this is Alcott always our starting shoot. It's 15 min from our home so that's partly why I suppose. I'm always surprised there aren't more people. There's a great festival every July 4th by the Eno River association that's a not to miss event. And we even had lots of fun when the river iced over one winter (it happens, but not...