Wildwood Park: Untamed and Wilds

Wildwood park is a half-baked nature trail at best. Between the incomplete trails, the sand-filled shelters and the lack of basic park amenities, this place is a waste your time. Town Common and River Park North are just around the corner and offer complete park experiences that ARE worth checking out.

Getting To the Park

This Park is just inside the city of Greenville with US-264 ALT running through the middle of it. And yes, you can hear/see traffic throughout the park. Check the map at the bottom of the page for more details. The first thing I noticed when I reached the well marked entrance is the very rough looking houses across the street. Also there is a less than savory looking fenced off area to the left of the main entrance. We have seen plenty of places like this that turned out amazing so I did not let this phase me. The crisp brand new sign is hard to miss in contrast to the surroundings. The drive from the road to the parking lot is long enough that I forgot about the entrance situation until I was leaving the park.

Shelters and Dock

After you park, you are looking at 80% of the what Wildwood has to offer. There are 3 massive covered areas. Only one of the three has a completed cement floor. The other two have cement boarders but have a center of… sand. I see no functional reason for this. I also noticed that the only bathrooms on site are two porta-potties in the same area. These half-ish completed shelters started to raise some red flags. Wildwood might be a bit more wild than I expected.

Just beyond the shelters is the nice new dock that has a wheelchair ramp. They did go to the trouble of installing a paved sidewalk from the parking lot to this ramp. The park has several accommodations for fishing of which the dock is probably the nicest. Since I do not fish, I cannot say if these materialize into good fishing spots but there were a fair number of people with lines in the water throughout the park when I visited. I really wish there was more to the main area like a playground or at least real toilets but…. that’s the whole parks besides… 

The Trails

Currently, there is only one trail open to the public. This is a single loop that goes around the East side lake (the lake does not have a name). Actually, I take that back. This unnamed loop is incomplete. The result is effectively two trails that both start from the main area and finish on opposite sides of the same impassable mud patch. If you are not paying attention to the map, you may not see this tinny portion of incomplete trail.

Lucky for me, I had a friend warn me about this trail before I came (Hi Amanda!). She, her husband and two kids in a double stroller did not know the loop was incomplete when they started to walk. They took the longer side and did not know until they got to the gap that the trail was incomplete. Her husband fearlessly forded the very mudy pit/creek with the stroller. Luckily everyone made it out the other side but he very much so regretted that decision. 

Looking at the map, it is easy to miss the VERY small part of the trail that is incomplete. I would bet that my friend was not the first person to go around the loop just to find themselves cut off

Incomplete work aside, most of the city parks I go to have trails that are either paved or have some type of natural covering that is well packed down. Wildwood has neither. Wildwood just has roots, mud and sand. It seems like someone cleared out the paths and forgot there was more to do. The result is very crude path. I walked the short leg of the loop during daylight and dodged roots the whole time. The unprepared walking surface already seem washed out to some extent also. Additionally, I noticed there seemed to be broken glass on several parts of the trail and trash in the surrounding areas to include at… *re-checks notes* … an oil tank of some kind. Seriously. I took a picture. 

This is the only thing the park currently has going for it and I am very disappointed.

The Potential

As much as I dislike incomplete parks, the park does have a lot of potential. Whenever Greenville gets enough money to finish loop, it will be a very nice nature walk. If they ever pave it or generally improve the walking surface, it could host local fun runs and other great activities. Raleigh has quite a few lakes with walking loops going around them. I can see this being very similar. 

If you look at the full development plan you will see what looks like a full on public amusement park. We are talking high ropes, BMX trails, amphitheater, camp ground wake board area and an observation tower that will rival most buildings in downtown Greenville. Color me skeptical. Considering they are depending mostly on public donations and government grants, I do not think we will see these high end amenities any time soon.

On a more reasonable note, there will be another loop around the west side lake. This will only be accessible via the far side of the existing loop until they complete some additional parking areas. There also will be a connection point with River Park North and the Greenville Greenway. That will make all the runners and bikers in Pitt county very happy (myself included). This is all subject to change so I am not getting my hopes up anytime soon. As the park stands today, I would rate it as a 1 star if it were in a finished state. Since there is an expectation for significant improvements, I bumped it into a 2 star. I plan to come back to see the park progress and keep this up to date.

Overall

Wildwood is an unfinished park that seems to fail at delivering anything besides a few covered shelters and a fishing pier with a parking lot. Until the park has finished constructing at least the main trail loop, there is no real reason to visit. I hope that this changes soon. What was the most interesting part about your visit?

Want More? Subscribe! Or Check out our Activity Map for more cool Activities