689 N Wakefield St, Zebulon, NC 27597
You won’t find this park on Google Maps, but we can’t forget the parks in East Wake County! Whitley Park in Zebulon has two separate playgrounds, tennis courts, large picnic shelter with a fireplace, and an outdoor concert pavilion. My favorite part is the old, towering oak trees that give you shade and shelter from a spring shower.
We don’t spend a ton of time in Zebulon. However, we just attended a soccer camp through their Parks and Rec program and that got me searching for a place for my 2 year old to play while his sisters attended camp. To my surprise, Zebulon Community Park was the only park with a playground that we could find on the map.
Shortly after attending soccer camp, I received an email from the parks department. It listed out all of the parks in Zebulon, and I was surprised to see some on the list that I hadn’t heard of before! We headed out to Whitley Park to check it out, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice shaded playground for the kids to play!
Newer Playground
The newer playground at Whitley Park is designed like an obstacle course. For a challenge, the kids can try to cross the whole playground without touching the ground. My four year old tried, but couldn’t make it the whole way. She hasn’t mastered monkey bars just yet, and there’s a lot of them!
My husband also pointed out that there are a LOT of things that spin here. If you have a kid who loves spinning, they will enjoy holding on to the spinning carousel and wobbly spinning top. There’s also a few other dizzying structures like those found at Marsh Creek Park.
I also immediately noticed the fancy seesaw, like the one we just recently found at North Hills Park. It’s great because it has a spring in the middle and doesn’t let you fall to the ground if your partner stands up! My husband and I enjoyed playing on this!
Older Playground with Swings
Back by the picnic shelter there’s an older metal style playground. This one has the traditional stairs and slide, so my two year old enjoyed playing on this side. There was also one of those “not-a-slide” structures off to the side, like you find at Main Street Park in Rolesville. I haven’t ever figured out exactly what you’re supposed to do on those things, but the kids like trying to slide down it. The one here was more flat so they just used it as a balance beam, probably due to all the time we’ve spent at The Tumble Gym lately!
Little Free Library and Outdoor Pavilion
At Whitley Park you’ll also find little free library. Here you can get some new books for the kids, and donate your gently used books to give back to your community. My kids have been on the hunt for these library boxes since the pandemic started. Wake County Libraries were closed for so long, we utilized the little free library to get new books! Now the kids get super excited whenever they see one because they know there’s a good chance they get to read a new bedtime story that night!
The outdoor pavilion also looks like the perfect spot to catch an outdoor concert. I hope the town of Zebulon will host some events here once the world opens back up again!
Whitley Park is such a nice park. I’m shocked I couldn’t find it on the map! Do you think you will check it out? Let us know in the comments!