Wake County might be a fast growing urban center, but it has protected wild lands that offer gorgeous landscapes and accessible trails
by Joe Miller

Some of the best places to play outdoors in the Triangle are courtesy of Wake County. From the mountain bike trails at Harris Lake County Park to the boat rentals at Lake Crabtree County Park to the environmental education center at Blue Jay Point, the county has made play a priority — as have county residents, who have approved, by wide margins, four open-space bond issues since 2000 for $211 million. But while you may be familiar with the county’s more developed parks — with a host of amenities from restrooms to paved parking to playgrounds — you may be less familiar with the county’s three nature preserves, all on the east side of the county. The preserves are more rustic in nature, with an emphasis on self-discovery rather than structured play. You park on gravel, you explore on natural surfaces, you take care of business in a porta-potty. But it means you can hike to a rock outcrop, paddle a swamp or, if you have one, ride a horse in these spaces — each a true departure from the day-to-day. 

Turnipseed Nature Preserve

There are two ways to approach this 265-acre preserve, which is part of the Marks Creek Watershed, named a Last Chance Landscape by Scenic America for being a gem of nature threatened by growth. The Hunt Valley Trail entrance is the more popular access, with open fields, picnic tables and the half-mile meadow loop trail. It’s an especially good option for families with small children who want to experience free play in nature. 

The Pleasants Road entrance, on the other hand, offers more of a wilderness getaway. Take the Gin Branch Creek Trail from the gravel parking lot and you’ll soon pick up the half-mile Lupine Loop, which circles an open meadow. Continue on the Gin Branch Creek Trail down to a wildlife observation deck above a marshy section of the creek where your patience (and quiet) may be rewarded with a beaver or otter sighting. Farther down the trail, the 1.7-mile Hidden Boulders Trail takes you to one of the last rock outcrops of the piedmont before it gives way to the coastal plain. It’s about 3.5 miles of hiking in all, but the Gin Branch Creek Trail continues to the Hunt Valley Trail portion of the park, where you can add another mile. 

7100 Hunt Valley Trail, Wendell or 1505 Pleasants Road, Wendell; 8 a.m. to sunset, daily.

Sandy Pines Nature Preserve

Though they’re little more than 6 miles apart, Sandy Pines and the Turnipseed Nature Preserve straddle different sides of the Piedmont/Coastal Plain line. Sandy Pines’ 563 acres are Down East flat, making it ideal for a long hike or a run — or a canter! The preserve’s 6.5 miles of trail are open to equestrians and are a bit wider than a typical hiking trail. You can travel through open meadows, mixed hardwood-pine forests and, mostly, through pine woods. A bare canopy in winter makes this an especially good hike destination on a cold day.

The land was farmed until the early 2000s, so you’re likely to see signs of the land’s agricultural past, where cash crops were grown, livestock raised and timber harvested. The preserve has the basic equestrian accoutrements: pull-through parking for trailers, mounting blocks, eye hooks for tying up horses, and more. (For hikers and runners unaccustomed to sharing the trail with horses, FYI: the proper protocol is to step to the side of the trail and let the horse pass.)

7201 Doc Proctor Road, Wendell; 8 a.m. to sunset, daily.

Robertson Millpond Preserve

You might look at a map of the Robertson Millpond and think, How could you possibly find escape in that scrawny 85-acre swamp? Eastern North Carolina was once pocked with these small ponds, carved out of the woods and blocking the flow of creeks to power gristmills. When the gristmill shut down, nature returned with a vengeance to reclaim this former pond. The result: blackwater cypress-gum swamps that make great habitats for beavers, muskrats and a bevy of birds and fish. They also make for a great place for a paddler to become blissfully disoriented and lost. But a heavily marked trail — there are 73 trail markers in just over a mile — aids the easily gone astray. You don’t even need your own boat to paddle here: kayaks are available for rent at certain times.

6333 Robertson Pond Road, Wendell; 8 a.m. to sunset, daily. 

For more information on these preserves, visit wake.gov.

This article originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of WALTER magazine.