We love spending time in our home state. North Carolina has so many great towns to visit. Our NC towns are historic and fun and they all have their own personalities. We recently planned and spent a day in Salisbury, North Carolina. Salisbury is about halfway between Winston-Salem and Charlotte. It is a beautiful town with a ton of historic homes, buildings, and parks to explore. It is known for a lot, most notably for being the birthplace of Cheerwine. We had a blast exploring this sweet town, check out what we did for ideas so you can plan your next visit to Salisbury!
Dan Nicholas Park
Our absolute favorite thing to do around Salisbury is visit Dan Nicholas Park. This park is one of the most unique county parks in all of North Carolina. The reason? All that it has to offer!
Rowan County runs Dan Nicholas Park, and they do a great job with it. The park is located on Bringle Ferry Rd., about a 10 minute drive from downtown Salisbury. This park has your typical ballfields, playgrounds, and picnic areas that you would come to expect at any other park. However, Dan Nicholas has a couple of extra fun activities for you to enjoy. This park has a great lake for water activities, a sweet miniature train, an awesome indoor nature center and aquarium showcasing snakes and lizards from the area, a cool petting zoo (watch out for the donkey, he bites), gem mining, and an actual zoo showcasing animals from all around North Carolina. Not your typical county park offerings.
We have done all of these offerings because all of them are so cheap or free. You can do gem mining for as little as $8. A ticket to the zoo is $1 for adults and $.50 for kids. The petting zoo is $.50 for every age. It could be the best bang for your buck in the whole state.
Though all of these attractions are great, the zoo featuring the North Carolina animals stands out. This zoo has a couple of beautiful bald eagles, two awesome black bears, deer, owls, a bobcat, the endangered red wolf, and so many more. It is an awesome experience and for a dollar or less per person it is an awesome deal.
Eat Some BBQ
We are BBQ fans. We grew up and still live in North Carolina where the best BBQ in the world is located. Now we love Texas BBQ, St. Louis BBQ, and Memphis BBQ – really any kind of sweet, smoked, meat is good in our book. They are all different and all are tasty. What makes North Carolina different is the pulled (or chopped) pork. Other areas have brisket or ribs – they definitely rule in those areas. But North Carolina is the king of chopped or pulled pork.
North Carolina has a BBQ Trail. We are trying to hit up all of these epic eateries as we travel through the state. A day in Salisbury has to include some BBQ. The Salisbury area has 6 stops within a 30 minute drive, including maybe the most historic BBQ town of all, Lexington.
In Salisbury, there are two places that will battle for your BBQ loving attention – Wink’s and Richard’s. We have yet to go to Richard’s but we absolutely love Wink’s. The BBQ and sauce is sweet and delicious. The cue is smokey and always good. What makes Wink’s stand out compared to other BBQ places are the amount and quality of sides. Sides make or break a BBQ joint, and Wink’s excels at them. They have some of the best hushpuppies we have tried on the trail so far. The service was also amazing, so many sweet, smiling faces!
Visit Spanky’s
Not that Wink’s doesn’t have great desserts, but no trip to Salisbury is complete until you hit up Spanky’s for some homemade ice cream. We love this place so much! Spanky’s is on N. Main Street right in the heart of downtown Salisbury. This is an old-fashioned ice cream parlor that also serves deli sandwiches. Spanky’s has that really great retro feel with the black and white tile and fun sitting areas. They usually have a pretty good variety of ice cream. The perfect place to grab a cone and walk through downtown.
Boone’s Cave Park
Boone’s Cave Park is an incredible little park we found on our last trip to this area. It is a great place to stop when you are heading in for a day in Salisbury. It isn’t in Salisbury, about 15 minutes north on I-85. Legend has it that a 16-year old Daniel Boone lived here with his family for a year while they were moving out towards the mountain. The legend says that the Boone family lived in a home on one side of the park, where the footings of the house still remain, and would hide in the cave on the other side when Native Americans came to visit.
Boone’s Cave Park has 7.5 miles of trails. Most of them are pretty short but put together they make for a good day out in the woods. The trails take you by the cave, cabin, a boardwalk over the wetlands, and along the Yadkin River. The river is actually pretty wide at this park and if has been raining it offers a great view. There are picnic shelters throughout, bathroom facilities, campgrounds, vending machines, and a nice little monument to Daniel Boone explaining the history.
A really cool place to visit is the cave. This cave is not huge, but it is big enough to get in and crawl around a little in. To get there, you have to drive all the way to the end of the parking area and take the stairs to the right. There are a bunch of stairs, so be prepared for the walk back up. The cave is right at the end of the stairs to the left. There are some great benches on the stairs with some really sweet views of the river.
This park does have a gate that closes every night. If you are going, you might need to show up about 45 minutes before closing time. Sometimes they will start to close down early – don’t get stuck!
Walk Historic Downtown
If you are looking for a downtown with that old-time charm Salisbury is the place for you. This is an actual historic downtown that covers multiple city blocks. Each block has its own unique architecture. Downtown Salisbury is an excellent place to take an afternoon walk. As with most downtown areas in North Carolina towns, most places close at 5 pm.
When you are walking around, there are a bunch of antique shops and other places to shop. Salisbury also has plenty of restaurant offerings. You can step into the Rowan County Museum or check out one of the awesome murals they have around town. This really is a walk back in time. Another really cool feature to check out while walking downtown are the various tile entrances to most of the buildings. Don’t forget to look down while you are walking in. You must do this when you spend a day in Salisbury.
Take A Trolley Ride
If you aren’t feeling up for a walk downtown, you can always catch the Trolley! Tours are only offered on Saturday starting at 11 am from April – October. (Also, always check openings and times for everything we suggest…you never know when a pandemic will change it all). The Historic Trolley tour takes you through prominent locations throughout the town like the original Cheerwine building and filming locations of movies/tv shows. The cost is $8 for adults and children 3-12 are $5 and under 3 is free.
Salisbury is the quintessential North Carolina town to spend a day in. It is a great place to spend time shopping, eating, or enjoying nature. Definitely make a stop on your next time through, or plan a day just to go there!
PS! If you want some other ideas for visiting North Carolina towns, check out our posts on Little Washington, Edenton, Mt. Airy, Apex, Carolina Beach, Pinehurst, or Historic Halifax.
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