9300 Deponie Drive, Raleigh NC
My family lovingly refers to Landfill park as “mount trashmore”. When they renamed it from Landfill to Green Hills I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed. My vote was Mt. Trashmore. Or anything that alluded to it’s original purpose!
Yes, it is a re-purposed landfill.
The landfill was operational until 2008, but now Landfill park (er, Green hills park) houses a playground, open play areas, sycamore picnic shelter, 1.8 miles of paved trails, and 2 miles of hiking/biking trails. If you are into mountain biking, this park has a mountain biking practice area to hone your technical skills. I am not much of a cyclist, but my kids have used this area as an obstacle course (when no cyclists are using it, of course) and they LOVE it.
Paved Trails
Landfill park’s trails connect to Abbott’s creek greenway, which then connects to Falls of Neuse greenway. So you could start here and run/bike/walk a marathon or more on paved trails.
Also, you can hike up a gravel path (0.7 miles) to the top of the landfill and get quite a view of Raleigh. Park in the small parking lot right at the entrance for easiest access. There is a couple of picnic tables so you can enjoy a snack after your uphill hike and enjoy the view before you head back down. It is fairly windy, so maybe not the best place for a full out picnic.
Playground
The playground itself is a wood chip surface and next to bathrooms. You have to drive the big loop around the park to get to the playground parking lot.
Several picnic tables and benches surround the playground. The playground has a couple of sunshades but there is no tree shade on the playground or nearby picnic tables. So it is full sun – which depending on the time of year may or may not be nice. My family and I tend to visit this one in the colder months and then switch to nearby and shaded Abbott’s Creek Park when it’s hot outside.
There are lots of open areas to play in and several places for a picnic. There is a switch-back trail from the Abbott’s Creek greenway up the hill to the playground. My kids love running up and rolling down these hills. They expend a good bit of energy here, which is great for me!
Update: They’ve added some sun shades over the picnic tables earlier this year. (2018)
Cons
So let’s talk about the cons. It’s not a great playground for young toddlers. Much of the play equipment is suited for older children, although there is a small section of toddler equipment, along with a musical part (I love that!) and 2 baby swings. The swings are on short chains and definitely for the youngest of tots. The older kids equipment has a couple of high areas that drop off, which make me nervous with the younger kids! My friend’s 2 year old actually fell off the playground from one of these high spots, but luckily he was okay! There aren’t any trees – so no shade, and it can be fairly windy. I’m not a huge fan of mulch surfaces, and the park has a rule against no open flames – so no fireworks, grills, or things of that nature. Which I doubt most of you pack for a play date anyway, but thought it worth mentioning!
Pros
Here’s some pro’s: My kids love hiking. The hiking trails here are not too technical and are easy for small feet to traverse. We like Durant Nature Preserve for the same reason. So we generally take a short hike, eat a snack and then play at the playground, which can take up a few hours. I have taken them up to the top of the landfill, but that was when my in-laws were in town and I had help to carry them, as I inevitably needed. It’s a nice cold weather playground, but by 9-10am during the summer the equipment is too hot to touch.
So bottom line is difficult for this one. I would say if you are close, definitely check it out. Some of you may need to scratch off “visited a re-purposed landfill” on your bucket list, so by all means you should visit. Other’s may want to introduce young children to hiking and this is a great place to do that. This park is also a part of the Junior Naturalist Program so if you’re participating in that you HAVE to come here at least once. But if you have young tots (say under 2 years old), maybe check out another place (Brier Creek or Lake Lynn Playground perhaps).