Old North Durham Park

Here’s another Durham park to visit if you arrive too early and need to waste time before you can enter the Museum of Life and Science! 😭 Old North Durham Park is 2.5 miles from the museum so you’ll need to drive over, but it’s not that far away. I liked that it was over by The Pit, Boxcar, and Motorco, which I used to frequent in my days before kids. It’s set back from the street in a type of courtyard park, so I felt very safe and the kids were contained. There’s also a large field that is perfect for picnics or kicking a soccer ball!

Playground

The biggest feature that makes Old North Durham Park stand out from the others is the rope climbing pyramid. We have seen structures like this at Carpenter Park in Cary and Kelly Road Park in Apex, but none that are this specific shape. The hexagons added a challenge for my 4 year old who loves to climb to the top of these structures and terrify all of the moms nearby. She wasn’t quite as confident on this structure and didn’t make it all the way to the top.

The rest of the playground is a series of climbing, balancing, and spinning apparatus. My three year old had some trouble at this playground since there weren’t a lot of things he could do here. I would say this playground is more for 5 and up due to the complexity of the structure. There was a wobbly balance beam that neither my 4 or 3 year old could do safely, but they both enjoyed the disc swing! They also took a few spins in the spinning tops that they frequent at Knightdale Station Park.

Another unique feature was the spinning pole seats on the playground. There was a pole with a seat on it that you could spin up to the top or down to the bottom. My kids weren’t able to spin the seat while they sat on it, but they liked having me do it for them. It was a little awkward to do, but I had never seen anything like that before!

the seats spin up and down along the pole

Little Free Library and Chicken Coop

In the parking lot you will also find a Little Free Library and a chicken coop with live birds. It is a part of the adjacent school and you are not allowed to touch, but you can safely watch the birds from a distance.