Back in July, we were lured out to Clayton to participate in the town's parks and rec department's Sasquatch hunt, and we had an awesome time exploring their amazing parks. Clayton is to the southeast of Raleigh, and even though we were coming from the western portion of the Triangle, we thought it was worth the drive. In fact, we happily made the drive 4 weeks in a row to check out this beautiful town.
🌳
Our first stop was Clayton Community Park. The site has all the things you’d usually expect at a park, like sports fields and playgrounds, but the areas we particularly enjoyed and thought were special were the duck pond at the back of the park, and the unpaved trail through the woods that provided access to the Clayton Community Center’s adorable garden.
🌳
Upon walking up to the small, shady pond, we were immediately greeted by the duck welcoming committee who seemed to be on a stroll, waddling their way down the approximately half-mile paved loop around the pond area. More than likely people feed the ducks (don’t feed the wildlife!), so they seemed to be comfortable getting a little closer to people than you’d expect, but they thankfully did not seem aggressive and were appropriately skittish when Peter tried to get too close. (We also wanted to note that the ducks may be hit or miss - someone mentioned they went today and saw no ducks.)
🌳
After saying goodbye to the ducks, we took the unpaved trail through a wooded area that had more sports fields and eventually opened up to a large field by Clayton Community Center. If you go to this park, you cannot miss stopping by their garden. They have adorable sculptures made out of old tires and a beautiful set up of plants, herbs, and veggies. The larger portion of the garden was closed when we went, but we could still see a lot through the fence.
🌳
We then picked back up with the wooded trail, and saw both a small boardwalk area and a little outdoor amphitheater before finishing the loop back at the pond.
🌳
Overall, our visit to here was a great morning out - and now that playgrounds (and bathrooms!) have reopened, that provides even more to do there.
🌳
Have you been to this park? Let us know in the comments!
(Note: We're currently working on updating our website with our reviews. This review was originally posted on Instagram and Facebook on September 23, 2020.)