Hi everyone! Welcome to the first post on Peter Does Parks. As this is our first post, we're probably going to end up trying out a few formats along the way to figure out what works best. For now, we're going to do two written sections, Park Points and A Few More Details, as well as adding some photos of the park. Park Points will be quick, basic, easy-to-access information. A Few More Details will be a more detailed description about our park experience and is something we haven't thought of a catchy name for yet.
Park Points
Location: Multiple entrances, but we entered from 1808 Lake Pine Drive, Apex, NC.
What we explored: Paved nature trail that has connections to unpaved nature trails and Apex Community Park.
Stroller friendly? Extremely. It is a 2-mile paved loop around Apex Lake with a minimal hill or 2.
Toddler friendly? If you're planning to keep them in their stroller or just go for a little bit of walking, yes. There are no play areas unless you are going to Apex Community Park, which is attached. We'll eventually do a separate dedicated post about that park.
Bathrooms? Yes. Very small, 2 stalls, and it looked like the room had a little air conditioner. One stall had toilet paper, the other didn't. Overall cleanliness not bad. The locks on the stall doors were not great. One had the cover piece missing so you could see through and had to kind of wiggle it with your finger to get the lock to latch.
Changing table? Yes, in the women's bathroom.
Benches/tables? Yes, probably about 5 or 6 along the 2-mile route.
Parking? A moderate amount. It might get full on a nice weekend day, though.
Other cool information: You can fishing at the lake.
A Few More Details
We walked the Apex Lake Trail mid-day on a Monday, so we were treated to fewer people on the pathway, which led to plenty of animal sightings. We saw 2 pairs of mallard ducks, a few blue herons, some geese, tons of turtles sunning themselves, innumerable squirrels, and a wide variety of other birds in the trees.
The trail is completely paved and loops all the way around Apex Lake. One of the best parts about this trail is that the vast majority of it is tree-covered, providing good shade and great breezes, making the trail ideal for days that may be a bit hot, but where you still want to get out and exercise.
The trail is probably not ideal for very young children unless you are pushing them in their stroller because there is not a lot of area for them to run around off the trail. The trail itself in most areas is very close to the lake and it might be easy for little ones to fall into the lake. The trail might be exciting for slightly older children, though, because there are some areas that go away from the lake where it looks like pathways have been made in the surrounding brush, so exploring those could be fun. There are also a few entrances to marked unpaved nature trails, which we did not explore since Peter was in his stroller, but hopefully we will do a follow-up about those in the future.
We are big fans of fishing, and there is a dock that extends into the lake for fishing. A sign by the dock says that it is a community fishing lake with special fishing rules, specifically that there are channel catfish in the lake and only 6 can be taken per day. Not sure we'd be interested in eating catfish out of the lake, but it might be something to try one day!
Lastly, I think it goes without saying that if you are hiking or out exploring nature, you should bring drinking water with you. We were thankful for our water today as we saw only 1 water fountain and it did not look like something anyone should be drinking out of.