Now that the warm weather is here to stay, it’s a perfect time to visit Anderson Point Park. This park includes some open grasslands, a couple of ball-fields with backstops, some nice trails for strolling and a good-sized playground. The Point Overlook, where Crabtree Creek meets the Neuse is reachable by a short hike down one of the trails in the park. There you’ll find a big circular bench under some beautiful old-growth hardwoods providing a peaceful place for rest or conversation.
20 Anderson Point
Raleigh, NC 27610
The park’s cottage and outdoor amphitheater are popular spots for weddings and can be rented by the hour. There are also a couple of rentable picnic shelters.
If you’re coming to the park to hike or visit the playground, you’ll want to cross through the gates and drive over the bridge crossing 64. This wasn’t 100% obvious on my first visit.
Of special interest to me was the Greenway trail that starts at the outer parking lot (before you cross the bridge over Route 64). This ~4 mile trail runs north from the park along the Neuse and will take you through some nice wetlands and give you some pretty views of the river. There are a couple of parts of the trail that aren’t quite so beautiful as you pass some cookie-cutter townhouse developments that are devoid of trees. But the good outweighs the bad and this is a nice dirt road-style trail to take the kids on with their mountain bikes. This will eventually become part of the Neuse River Greenway, running from the dam at Falls Lake, along the Neuse River to the Johnston County line.
Eventually, the dirt road gave way to single-track and I stopped my ride when I hit some rocky hills on the trail near the 3.5-mile marker. I quit just after passing some steep stairs. If you’ve been there and can describe the trail after passing that spot, please chime in in the comments below! (Update: I took a look at the Raleigh Greenway Map and it looks like I qwas just a couple-hundred feet from the end of the “official” route.)
Also – apologies for the qualities of the photos in the gallery! I forgot my camera and took these with my phone.
