Anderson Point Park

This is one of my favorite parks. It’s quite lovely and has so many trails that take you in different directions. The playgrounds look nice from my vantage point of a trail walker but I have not actually played on it. There’s always parties going on at the shelters in the summer, or a pick up game of soccer. It feels safe and the park is well maintained. There’s one trail that takes you down to the river and a fire pit/​circle. Looks like it would be a great place to camp. Another trail is frequented by bikers and takes you along the Neuse River while another trail leads all the way to Clayton. Lots of nature elements here as well — they have signs identifying different animals and a nature walk. Just a pretty, quiet park. I do wish I knew what the weird white house is and how you might go about renting it. Seems like a nice but under used building. Enjoy your time here. It’s worth a visit.

This is my neighborhood park and I am so glad to have it. I love the trails and wildlife. With that being said it really needs better maintenance. With all the recent added traffic it just needs to be better attended to, especially the playground which needs to be weeded. Then there is managing the trails and bike traffic. The bikers don’t seem to share the road very well. I wouldn’t care if it was just me, but I have an autistic preschooler and he likes to run the trail. Even when we are doing our best to be respectful of them I don’t feel we as pedestrians are getting that in return. We need more signage for cyclist telling them to share the trails, I have seen this in other parks and it needs to be done in this one for all our safety.

My friend brought me out here today — it is on the east side of Raleigh — closer to the Poole Rd/​Walnut Creek Ampitheater side of town. What a great find! It actually seems to be a confluence of trails — the Crabtree Valley Creek trail — which goes all of the way to the Crabtree Valley mall (where you can pick up with other trails too) and also the Neuse River trail — which I think goes all the way to Wake Forest and Johnston County. I’m not an expert but, I think you could go a lot of places from this one park. My husband and I will be back with our bikes soon! It seemed to be a very bike friendly park as we ran into a lot of road cyclists — especially for a January day.
As a park, it is great itself — it has the aforementioned trails and shorter trails around this park area. There is a playground, a picnic shelter/​pavilion and a retreat cottage. On our walk, my friend commented that the pavilion/​shelter would be great for a kid’s birthday party as it is adjacent to an open field area which backs into the playground. I definitely agree. We found a fire pit looking area down near the river (on an off shoot from the Neuse River trail). What a cool place. The Triangle area is blessed with so many great parks — this is another one to add to the list.

Cool, Safe feeling Park! We did not know of this place until being invited for a Birthday Party! Near the Parking lot was a Large Shelter with Many Picnic Tables and nearby Grills we used Both and had a Great Brat Lunch! Right beside a Large Field where I watched some guys fly a Remote Control Airplane, then the Birthday Boy organized a Game of Kick-​Ball! We had Fun!

Though the Anderson Point Park was founded in 1988, the Neuse River Corridor Park Plan took a giant step toward completion with the dedication of Anderson Point Park’s 98.3 acres adjacent to the Neuse River in 2000. What I wish the photos would show you is how vast the Neuse River Trails really are and how much the planners really utilized that span of acres. I wonder if someone could even walk all of them in one day. I’ve been out on the trails twice now and have yet to see an end in sight.
The park seems to center around three main attractions: a large meadow and a few surrounding fields which house a variety of local wildlife and protect their natural habitats, the Anderson Family Homestead from the early 1900’s and the scenic overlook of and surrounding trails of the Neuse River Trails.
The park’s shortcoming is really the lack of parking. There is only one small lot which was full on the first occasion I wandered out here to the point that I couldn’t even park and had to leave. The trails could also use some better markings. I realize it’s not in an area that gets a lot of traffic in terms of park visitors outside of those who live in the neighboring communities, but I really adore the landscape.
I have walked around just taking in the scenery. I saw a pickup soccer game near the playground. I imagine the old Anderson Homestead is used for many special events. If you look in the window you’ll see hardwood floors, bookshelves with old books, and open airy rooms.
Go down the Neuse River Trail in any which way and it seems to go on forever. However, if you continue to follow the loop around, you’ll see a nice birdhouse, a grove of trees carefully manicured with some benches, a straggly overgrown area with a path winding up to more overgrowth with benches, and other large open fields beckoning back to other sunny views. A couple was out walking their Pomeranian, mothers walking with their small children, and men cycling in and out of the park. There are natural amphitheater setups if you want to get some people together and then there are a couple of official shelters.
It’s not huge, but it’s vast at the same time… Beautiful sunshine and plenty of places to plop down and relax.