Let’s give East Raleigh a little love! Here’s a nice new park over off Skycrest and Brentwood. Hill Street Park has a community center, picnic shelter, and 2 playgrounds for the kids to explore!
Flat Rubber Playground Surface (my favorite!)
The playground surface is the nice, flat rubber that I love! No mulch in the shoe here! This is also perfect for crawling babies!
(See also: Abbott’s Creek and Harris Lake)
Two Separate Playground Structures
The playground is divided into two separate structures. One is shorter for the younger crowd, and one is taller for older kids. There are also two bucket swings for the kids to enjoy (and mom to hate having to lift children in and out of all day 😆). Overall, the playground reminds me a lot of what they have at Greystone Recreation Center.
Cons: No shade, no bathrooms, and not fully fenced
One thing I didn’t like about this playground was the lack of shade. We were there in the middle of August, and boy was it hot! Luckily the benches are right next to the building so I was able to sit in the shade, but the kids were playing right in the sun and got hot FAST. The slides were also in direct sun and got super hot. My kids ended up hiding out under the playground most of the time so they could be in the shade.
Probably the biggest downfall to this park is the lack of a bathroom. There’s one in the community center, but it doesn’t open until 2pm so before that you are on your own. Our prime park time right now is around 10am so we were out of luck. My 3 year old had to go so we popped a squat in the woods next to the building. I guess a pro there is that it is very well hidden so a good place to go in case of emergency. HA. Please don’t judge me.
The park is also not fully fenced in, although it is behind the community center building and down some steps so your kid isn’t able to run off easily. Of course my one year old headed straight for the steps a few times, but I was sitting right there and it was easy to stop him.
Overall, I’m happy to have a new park on the east side of town, but I do wish Raleigh would add a bathroom that’s available all the time! We’ll definitely have to check out the Hill Street Park Community Center calendar of events! We will add it to our calendar so make sure you check it regularly or subscribe to the blog for updates!
Pros
- rubber surface
- picnic shelter
Cons
- no shade
- bathroom doesn’t open until 2pm
- not fully gated