Review: Greenbelt Park & Buddy Attick Lake

On our calendar today was Greenbelt Park, where we were going to go walk/exercise. Unfortunately it was NOT what we thought it was going to be. The trails are really hiking trails, with no pavements that we could find. However we noticed driving in, a large playground, and decided to backtrack over towards the Azaela Trail. The playground area is actually pretty cool - big luscious green areas, with a baseball diamond, and two playgrounds with public toilets, and tons of picnic tables.

It would be perfect to go just to play in the park, let the kids run around with balls and frisbees, and have a picnic. I think they also had grills available.

The rest of the Greenbelt Park area is all off road trails. This is obviously not stroller friendly, and unless you've been here a few times, finding your way around is a little difficult (even with a map)!

Greenbelt Park is a 1300 acre wilderness island. Within this lush green kingdom hides a great deal of wildlife: white-tailed deer, red foxes, raccoons, squirrels, groundhogs, and 320 species of birds. In spring the dogwoods, laurels and azaelas put on a magnificent show.

Greenbelt park has several short hiking trails that wind through the wilderness. A favourite hike uses both the Perimeter Trail and the Blueberry Trail, making a loop in the south end of the park.

Because we did want to walk, we went to Buddy Attick Lake, which is just a few minutes away, and they have a very nice (but short) paved walk around the lake. They also have a HUGE playground, lots of picnic tables, and views of the lake and ducks..

Now, I enjoyed walking around the lake, and the park was great looking, but when I got home and thought about it - the lake is a big draw to little people, especially MY little people, so I'm not sure that I'd want to do a picnic here, unless I kept TWO eyes on my kids all the time. At the Greenbelt Park playground, it was such a wide open green space, with bar-b-que grills, and some trees for shade, that it would take little legs a while to reach the forest areas, so hopefully less likely that anyone would get lost, AND certainly no one would be swimming!!

Would definitely go back by myself to hike around Greenbelt Park, and if you're in fairly good shape with a small child who fits in a "baby bjorn" carrier - you could probably also have a nice walk. Will definitely take my kids back to Buddy Attick Park.