Pullen Park: Y’all, this place makes it incredibly hard to take a bad photo. Literally every corner of this Raleigh staple is picturesque, especially right now as spring gets going. We loved walking around and finding surprise after beautiful surprise of blooming plants and trees.
Unfortunately, though, the secret has long been out about Pullen Park, and it quickly dawned on me why we’ve actually never been - it gets BUSY. We arrived at 9:15am on a Thursday and had the park mostly to ourselves for about a half-hour. People were steadily filing in by 9:45 (the amusements open at 10), and by 11 when we left, the place was hopping. Mask wearing was inconsistent - sometimes it seemed we were seeing many masks, other times not so much. If these things are important to you, our recommendation is arrive at the time we did or earlier to avoid the crowd and ride the amusements right when they open.
Overall, we did have an absolutely fabulous time, though. Peter loved pretending to be a train conductor in the old train car. He had a ball on the carousel (which we’ll cover in a separate post). We’re looking forward to when we can eventually take a boat out on the little lake. Next time we’ll hit the fantastic playgrounds first before taking a stroll in the park.
A few logistics comments: • The majority of the park is paved and stroller accessible. There is some open area toward the back that has less people, but also less paved walkways. • The playgrounds do have some mulch and sand areas. • Bathrooms were nice and clean. • There is a place to purchase food, plus shelters with grills and other places scattered around the park to have a picnic lunch. • The parking lot by the main entrance wasn’t incredibly large, but other parking was available toward the back of the park.
What’s your favorite part about Pullen Park? Let us know in the comments!
Stay tuned for our carousel post later this week!
(Note: We're currently working on updating our website with our reviews. This review was originally posted on Instagram and Facebook on April 13, 2021.)