The Wake Forest greenway guide: every trail and where it connects

Wake Forest is quietly building one of the better small-town trail networks in the Triangle, and most residents only know the piece that runs behind their own neighborhood. The town's first greenway went in back in 2003, and the system had grown to 14 miles by 2021, with long-range plans for more than 40. The trails already connect to Rolesville in one direction and to Raleigh's Capital Area Greenway in the other, which means you can now start a ride in a Wake Forest subdivision and end it a very long way from home. Here's the full map in words: what exists, where to park, and how the pieces fit together.

Smith Creek Greenway: the backbone

Smith Creek is the spine of the system, and it currently exists in two separate sections with plans to connect them.

The north section starts at the Smith Creek Soccer Center, 690 Heritage Lake Road, in the Heritage area. From the soccer fields, about 0.63 miles of paved trail runs along the complex, with another 2.4 miles continuing south of Rogers Road. The route passes wetland habitat and creek views on its way toward Heritage High School. Parking is available at the soccer center and at the end of Foundation Drive near Heritage High, and the soccer center adds a playground, a picnic shelter, and portable restrooms, which makes it the most family-friendly trailhead in town.

The south section is short but important. It runs about 1.15 miles from Burlington Mills Road south along Smith Creek, crosses the Neuse River on a pedestrian bridge, and ties directly into Raleigh's Neuse River Greenway. That bridge is the single most valuable stretch of pavement in the whole network, because the Neuse River Trail is part of Raleigh's Capital Area Greenway and runs for miles in both directions. The town notes that once the missing middle piece is built, the connected system will give riders a 43-mile one-way link through the Raleigh and Clayton greenway networks.

That middle piece is funded and in motion. Smith Creek Greenway Phase 2 is a planned 1.4-mile segment starting where the current trail ends near Burlington Mills Road, and Phase 3 adds 1.2 miles from the Ligon Mill Road bridge to the junction with Sanford Creek Greenway, both funded through the town's 2022 bond referendum.

Dunn Creek Greenway: the downtown connector

From the same Smith Creek Soccer Center trailhead, the Dunn Creek Greenway heads north for one mile, passing under the NC 98 Bypass through a pedestrian culvert and continuing to Ledgerock Road and Cardinal Crest Lane. The original mile was completed in 2012, funded by a $500,000 bond approved by voters in 2005 plus $450,000 in federal recovery-act money.

A 0.3-mile Phase 2 "Downtown Connector," finished in September 2017, links the trail to Deacons Ridge, Cardinal Park, and downtown Wake Forest. And the corridor is in the middle of its biggest growth spurt yet: Phase 3 adds 1.7 miles from the Ledgerock area north to East Juniper Avenue, splitting to run both along the creek and through Ailey Young Park, connecting the Traditions neighborhood with the Northeast Community. Phase 4 adds a half mile in Flaherty Park, tying that park and the Del Webb and Orchards at Traditions trails into the larger corridor. Both phases came out of the 2022 bond, and the town has been working toward completion in 2026.

When those pieces open, Dunn Creek becomes the trail that stitches north Wake Forest together: Flaherty Park, Traditions, Ailey Young Park, downtown, and the soccer center all on one corridor.

Sanford Creek Greenway: the Rolesville link

Behind Heritage High School, the Smith Creek trail meets the Sanford Creek Greenway, which runs east under the Forestville Road bridge to Marshall Farm Road for about a mile, passes through roughly 0.85 miles of wetland habitat, and connects to the Town of Rolesville and its Main Street Park. This is the trail that turns a Wake Forest walk into a Rolesville coffee run. The wetland stretch is also the best wildlife-watching segment in the network; go early and quietly.

Richland Creek Greenway and the smaller trails

On the west side of town, the Richland Creek Greenway begins at the Cottage at Olde Mill Stream, 901 Barnford Mill Road, and follows the east side of Richland Creek north to Barnford Mill Road, with long-range plans to extend toward Franklin County. The town also intends to extend this corridor to connect with the trails inside Joyner Park, which would link the town's most popular park into the greenway system.

A handful of shorter paved trails round out the network: a quarter-mile trail in Flaherty Park, a quarter-mile trail behind Kiwanis Park and the library on E. Holding Avenue, a half-mile trail in H.L. Miller Park, and a path in Tyler Run Park. Joyner Park's three miles of internal loops technically sit outside the greenway system but function as part of it for anyone who walks.

For something rougher underfoot, the Wake Forest Reservoir soft trail runs 1.7 miles of natural surface along the west side of the old reservoir, the closest thing in town to a proper woods hike.

Three routes to actually try

Reading trail inventories is one thing. Here's how locals actually use the system:

• The family loop: park at Smith Creek Soccer Center, walk south along the fields, let the kids finish at the playground. Flat, paved, restrooms on site.
• The Rolesville out-and-back: start behind Heritage High, take Sanford Creek east through the wetlands into Rolesville, turn around at Main Street Park. Quiet, birdy, and just long enough to feel like exercise.
• The big ride: park near Burlington Mills Road, take the south Smith Creek section over the Neuse River bridge, and join the Neuse River Trail. From there, Raleigh's greenway system is yours; turn around whenever your legs vote.

Where this is all headed

The pattern in every town document is the same: the gaps are closing. The bond-funded phases on Smith Creek and Dunn Creek are designed to turn today's disconnected segments into continuous corridors, one running north-south through the middle of town and out to the regional network, the other looping the north side into downtown. The town's own planning describes a build-out of more than 40 miles.

For now, the smartest move is to learn the trailheads: Smith Creek Soccer Center for the north, Burlington Mills Road for the Neuse connection, the Cottage at Olde Mill Stream for Richland Creek. Pick one this weekend. The network is better than most people in town realize, and it gets better every construction season.