When thinking about Triangle hidden parks gems, does your local TV station come to mind? No? Well it should because the WRAL TV Azalea Gardens is a beautiful hidden gem, filled with gorgeous flowers, cute sculptures, epic birdhouses, and cozy places to relax.
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Located right behind the WRAL studios, you could easily spend a whole morning in this well-shaded garden taking in all the different varieties of azaleas and other flowers, which have great signage to let you know what each is. The walkways through the garden switch between brick and gravel, but we found it easy to navigate with a stroller.
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While the garden doesn’t look too large from the outside, it’s bigger than you think. We found ourselves thinking multiple times that we’d seen everything, only to find another pathway we hadn’t yet explored.
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One of our other favorite features were little animal statues hidden throughout the gardens. Peter was especially fond of the toad, but we also had a hard time breaking away from the Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil monkeys.
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There was plenty of parking available, with a sign directing you to where you needed to go as you pulled in. The lot is also not far from the garden entrance.
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We did not see any bathrooms, so just something to keep in mind.
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This garden isn’t just for kids - there were a few areas with seating where you could just relax and unwind. Not to mention, we saw no one else in the garden the entire time we were there.
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Our only words of caution are beware the beautiful fountain. From what we noticed, this seemed to be the watering hole for all the bees in the garden, and there were a LOT of them. 🐝🐝🐝 They didn’t seem aggressive, but it would be easy for a child to try to pick one up or just not notice one while playing in the fountain. Just observe the fountain from afar. (We had no other bee issues while in the gardens.)
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Have you been to the WRAL Azalea Gardens? 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 4, 2020.)