We’ve been spending a lot of time at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham lately. The museum is now operating on a timed entry system, and we have ended up arriving too early for our scheduled slot. In order to waste some time before our museum admittance we headed over to the adjacent Rock Quarry Park playground! You can literally walk to the playground from the museum, so it’s super convenient if you need some extra fun before or after your museum visit!
Rock Quarry Park is a giant park. The playground and community center near the museum is only one small portion of this 46 acre park. You can also drive around to another entrance that contains tennis courts and a large open field that houses festivals and events. We ended up driving over to that entrance, but it’s not accessible to the playground so I recommend just sticking with the Murray Ave entrance next to the museum instead.
Playground
The Rock Quarry Park playground is an older metal style structure, but it has the rubberized surface that we all love. My 6 year old has been on a monkey bar kick lately, so she was excited to see the old basic metal monkey bars to swing on. However, there’s a weird design flaw that prevents you from getting onto the playground structure after you complete the monkey bars. She didn’t want to just drop to the ground so I had to constantly go over and help her down. Not sure who planned it that way, but my 6 year old did not approve! 😃
Sprayground
I’m always excited to find another free splash pad, and I can’t believe I didn’t know there was one in Durham! The Rock Quarry sprayground runs from May to September and unfortunately we visited in the winter so the water was not turned on. It looks to be a pretty basic splash pad with some jets in the middle and misting stations around the outside. Definitely not as big as the free ones in Cary, Knightdale, and Wake Forest, but still a great option to cool off when the weather gets hot!
Sand Box
The playground has rubberized surface throughout most of the space, but it also contains a sandbox with a working water river. I know some of you try to avoid sand and water, so I wanted to give you a heads up! It looks like a fun spot for the kids to play, but you’ll want to bring a change of clothes. The water in the sandbox was turned off while we were there, so I assume it runs with the sprayground schedule.
Adjacent to the playground you will also find the Edison Johnson Aquatic Center that has an indoor pool, and there’s also some outdoor fitness equipment behind the recreation center. So after visiting the park you could walk the trails or even go for a swim!
I feel like most people who come out this way just visit the Life and Science museum and may not have noticed the awesome resources right next door. So tell me, did you know about Rock Quarry Park, sprayground, and aquatic center?!