Umstead State Park: Longest Public Bridal Trail in Wake County

If you love long trails but do not like to drive, Umstead is the place for you. With 34+ miles of trails just minutes from Raleigh, Umstead is one of the unsung favorites of the Piedmont.

Raleigh’s Local Favorite

Umstead State Park is an arguably massive park squeezed between the RDU airport and downtown Raleigh. At one point this area was a rural oasis but now it has been swallowed by urban sprawl. You will find a few different access points but the most popular one is via Glenwood Avenue.

This is arguably the most easily accessible hiking experience in the Raleigh area but it does come at the cost of seclusion. Many of our favorite parks like Cliffs of the Neuse State Park and Raven Rock State Park are in fairly remote locations that do take some effort to get to. These parks are serene and often perfect for escaping. Depending on the area of the park, you will still hear traffic sounds and jet noise in Umstead.

Parking is spread out throughout access areas and can be found at several points in various conditions. We parked at an area near the visitor center that had a gravel lot and one way traffic. This is a very popular park during the weekend so you may have to circle a little bit to find the parking spot for you. Depending on what you are going to do, you may need to scout out which of the seven different gates you want to use.

Oh Hiking We Will Go!

Madilyn and I have started to make a great habit of going on a hike nearly every weekend during the cooler months. As a result, we have settled into a great little routine of hiking, eating lunch, maybe hike some more, checking out the visitor center and then doing something fun like a playground or maybe get a treat. This day was a great example of that.

I found a great loop in the North West corner of the park that started near the visitor center called Sal’s Branch Trail. Perfect! There is an access road that cuts through the middle of the loop in case we needed to get back to the car early. Madilyn was in a great mood and ran ahead the whole time as normal.

Lakes!

The little bridges we found throughout the park are some of Madilyn’s favorite parts of the day. She knows I take pictures all the time while we are out on trails so she has picked up a cute habit at these bridges. She will run across the bridge and then slow walk back across while looking at me to take pictures. Then Madilyn demands to see the pictures of herself and declares “I so cute” when she sees them. Makes me chuckle every time.

The Sycamore Creek and Reedy Creek converge into the Crabtree creek that the near by Crabtree Creek mall is named after. Parts of these creeks are dammed up to make a few lakes. “Big Lake” (what a name) is accessible by trail and by car near the main entrance off of Glenwood. Madilyn thought we were going to go swimming when we got to Big Lake. Explaining to a toddler why we can not go swimming in Fall is no easy feat.

A dashed subdued line on the park map indicates the location of a high voltage power line bisecting the park. Like normal, I did not look that closely at these details and was surprised to see it on the trail. It definitely reverberated the fact that we are very close to a big city as the planes roared overhead.

Got Horses?

You will find some common amenities that many other NC State parks have. Camping areas, hiking trails and park shelters are standard but apparently so are biking trails and bridals trails these days. There is a massive 13 mile multi-use trail that is open to bikes, horses and hikers. I have previously hiked about good half of this trail before and was surprised at some of the views and also how much traffic you can hear.

The variety and accessibility of the trail in this park are a known favorite of the local Raleigh community. It is not uncommon to see large groups of hikers, riders etc out together on these trails.

There is unfortunately no swimming allowed in the most of the park. This was one thing I really liked about some of the other parks we have visited recently including Cliffs of the Neuse State Park and The Bullhole.

We enjoyed our lunch on a picnic bench behind the visitor center but that was the extent of our visit. The primary and nearly exclusive intent of Umstead State Park is to hike and to do so with convenience to Raleigh. The roaring plane engines did spark a great conversation with Madilyn about what air planes were and reminded me about the near by RDU airport observation park. We hung out there for a while before heading home to talk more about them.

Longest Public Bridal Trail in Wake County

Having visited multiple remote parks recently, I was a little sad to be reminded that one of the largest parks in the piedmont is inundated with traffic sounds and airport noise. That being said, it is still a great way to get out of your city comforts and see some nature.

Overall

Umstead State Park is a favorite day trip for several generations of Raleigh and Wake County natives. If you are a serious hiker, mountain biker or bridal trail lover living in the Raleigh area, this is probably a great place to get some great long trail time in without having to drive for hours.

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