Chapel Hill Community Center

This place is great. They have a wonderful park that is full of friendly people even in the middle of the day on a Wednesday. We drive the extra distance to visit this park instead of the one near our home. Bring the kids and meet some new friends.

The Chapel Hill Community Center is a smallish park that seems to offer something for just about everyone!
Outside, you have a playground for all the kids, some shaded picnic tables for munching or taking a rest, a rose garden, and a basketball court. Inside, I hear (I have not indulged) that there is a swimming pool, an indoor basketball court, and clearly the community center itself. However, the best asset of the park in this guy’s mind is that it serves as a jump off point for both the Bolin Creek greenway and the Battle Branch Trail. Awesome! Get on the Battle Branch if you want to run over to UNC or want more of a trail run or hop on Bolin Creek if you prefer a greenway (read «paved road») or are more interested in popping up to Driade than you are in running.
Given the trail access here and the über-​fit community that resides in Chapel Hill/​Carrboro (and actually within the Triangle in general), it’s no surprise that the parking lot here gets packed! So be careful when you’re backing out of your spot!

A great local resource that we frequently bike/​walk to with our dog and lil’ toddler in tow! It’s super conveniently located across Estes from U-​mall and the USPS and has great access to adjoining trails. This is definitely a 4.75 star review with a few small nit picky points which just builds upon what others have already mentioned…
Pros:
+ Convenient access and centrally located for those just north of/​near UNC and Coker Hills.
+ Large playground that doesn’t seem to get too crowded most days of the week and but when it does, it can be a chore to score a coveted infant baby swing.
+ A humongous hill that seems to be perfect for bigger kids to roll down
+ Awesome access to Bolin Creek (takes you up to MLK near Foster’s and Flyleaf) and Battle Branch Trails (takes you right up to UNC).
+ Plenty of community programs and activities including a small but useful climbing gym on select nights.
+ A small swimming pool with lanes (for better swimming options, look into the Homestead Aquatic Center).
Cons:
— Can be a bit crowded on weekends.
— Parking can be a mess as well when it gets crowded.
— Bathrooms are a bit unclean and can be missing some TP!
— Be prepared to deal with some sassy kids (& their parents) on the playground sometimes.
Tips:
+ If you’re interested in using the climbing gym, but aren’t sure you want to commit for months at a time, get a punch pass.
+ If you sign up/​pay for activities and you’re a CH resident, don’t forget to mention it so you get the resident pricing.
+ Check out the board at the front for the monthly schedule.
+ Free wifi courtesy of the Town of Chapel Hill, but it’s a bit dodgy and slow as all heck.
+ If you can bike here, do so — you’ll save yourself the hassle of having to maneuver around in the crowded parking lot.

Awesome outdoor playground and play area for kids. There is a big lawn (with hills) where kids can run around and expend their pent-​up energy. There are also swings of all kinds: baby swings, swings for toddlers, tube swings, and lots of slides, monkey bars, tunnel mazes, climbing ropes, and activity centers for kids. As others have mentioned, yes, this place gets busy with the under-​5 crowd, but sometimes your little one enjoys it and wants to feel like he’s a part of the action even if he’s too young to play with other kids!
There is a cute rose garden nearby, bountiful picnic tables for lunching families, outdoor basketball courts, and of course, the bike– and dog-​friendly Bolin Creek nearby. Haven’t been to the pool inside, but the climbing gym is pretty nifty. Based on the outdoor space, the CHCC is tops!

Decent sized playground. It was fairly busy, which the kids loved! There’s several patches of grass and a rose garden right by it. I was pretty disappointed with the walking trails though. They didn’t seem to go in a big circle like most do. They kept winding up to someone’s house or apartment complexes. The kids liked them just fine though. All in all it’s a pretty nice and clean park to go to.

What, no thread for Battle Branch Trail or Battle Park and its network of trails? Guess I’ll have to review them here…
I visited the Community Center Park for the first time this morning as I planned to park and pick up the Battle Branch Trail from there. Although I didn’t have time to really wander around the community center and surrounding park, the rose gardens caught my attention, as well as the well-​paved Bolin Creek Trail, which I haven’t yet tried.
But seriously, the best part about the community center is that it’s the trail head for the Battle Branch Trail, which cuts away from the community center briefly through an apartment community and then heads off into the woods toward campus. This time, I stuck to the main trail and followed it down to and through Battle Park before turning around, but I’m eager to explore some of the side trails and loops as well. The trail itself is well-​maintained and good, fun run. At 7:30 in the morning, it was all-​but-​deserted, save for a couple cross-​country runners who seriously put me to shame.
Although I doubt I could get more than a 4 mile run out of the whole venture (even following some of the loops and side trails), it’s a beautiful, quiet place to go for a run. I’ll probably make it a weekly trip.

As the mother of an active young baby, I have cased the local parks and playgrounds, and I’m here to tell you, this is the crème de la crème. Of course, as a consequence thereof, it’s also usually crowded. If you’re here for the playground equipment, you won’t be disappointed. Try come after lunch when the preschoolers are napping, especially if you’ve got a under-​2-​year old, just to minimize trampling and toy-​swiping. The play structure is big and new, with lots of places to crawl and climb and dangle, plus a slide or two, and underneath is that synthetic surface that’s good for those of us with mulch-​eaters. There’s also a small, separate play structure that’s probably intended to be for babies; it’s got a slide and some steering wheels to play with. There are two regular swings and two bucket swings, a large plastic pseudo-​tire swing that looks super-​fun, and access to walking trails and the rose garden when you’re ready to take a stroll or just chill out for a bit. I like that there’s green space around the playground so that kids can run around, or so that you can spread out a blanket and plop down smaller babies with their toys, apart from the general frenzy. There’s plenty to do here apart from the park — the community center building has an indoor pool, gym equipment, and a climbing wall, and outside you’ll find volleyball and basketball courts, as well as a bocce (court? field? pitch? It occurs to me I’ve never used this term in a sentence before). If you’re a Chapel Hill resident, check out the Parks and Recreation website for the classes and family activities that are held here throughout the year.

I first became familiar with the Community Center while I was volunteering for the Special Olympics a few years ago. Many of the Special Olympic pratices and events are held there, and for good reason. They have a large indoor pool, a nice gym, and a climbing wall, but there are even more attractions on the grounds surrounding the facility. It’s there that you’ll find the lovely rose garden, some cool public art, volleyball and bocce ball courts, and a kids’ playground area. My favorite thing about the Community Center is that it’s the starting point for the Bolin Creek Trail, which is like 3 miles long and a great place for a relaxing walk or run. And I had no idea that you couldn’t have a picnic in the rose garden, but they do also have some picnic tables.

I actually lived around here for 3 years before I even realized we had a community center, and when I first went in it out was out of sheer curiosity. I was fairly well astounded.
This place is amazingly well appointed. Can you believe that we have a community center that has a rose garden? Yeah, my girlfriend couldn’t either until I took her there for a picnic (which is apparently a no-​no, oops). My friends and I use this for volleyball sometimes, too, especially at the beginning of the school year when the sand courts around campus are too crazy.

I’m familiar with the community center mostly for its rose garden, access point for the Bolin Creek Trail, outdoor basketball courts, and kids’ playground. But it also offers an indoor pool, gym, and court facilities. The rose garden is definitely smaller than NC State’s, but it’s well kept and actually has 130 different varieties (plus a cute gazebo where you can snuggle with your honey). The playground is also nice — not huge, but it is set on a pretty big expanse of lawn, so in addition to the actual equipment, kids have space to simply run around and be kids. I know there’s a different review thread for Bolin Creek trail, but it’s worth mentioning here that you can park at the community center and access the trail on the opposite end of the playground, beyond the rose garden.