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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The post A Day Trip Plan for Salisbury, NC first appeared on Go The Adventure Way.

Greensboro, North Carolina is a really busy city with a lot to do…way more than to do in one day! Nearby State Parks, Water Parks, National Historic Sites, Museums, Restaurants – we could spend days here exploring. The outdoors were calling our name so we focused on the free parks the town had to offer. Here is our day guide for visiting Greensboro –

The NC BBQ Trail

Did you know there is an official NC BBQ trail? Neither did we! However, the good people over at the North Carolina Barbecue society have put together a great list (and even trip idea) for us to discover. The historic NC BBQ trail consists of 22 restaurants from the coast to Tennessee. This list highlights different and unique BBQ venues for you to taste and enjoy. It just so happens that Greensboro boasts one of those places – Stamey’s BBQ!

Eat at Stamey’s BBQ

We loved Stamey’s as soon as we entered, extremely friendly staff and a fun atmosphere welcomed us in. The BBQ here is Lexington Style and cooked over hardwood coals. We tried both the chopped barbecue pork and the bbq chicken. The pork definitely won but the sauce was super good on the chicken! Handsdown the best part of the meal was the cobbler of the day – blackberry. Warm, bubbly and served with a side of vanilla ice cream. Yep, nothing much better. There are two locations in Greensboro. We went to the original site located on West Gate Blvd. We will definitely be back to eat here again. Thank you Stamey’s!

Guildford County Court House – National Military Park

This was such a fun find for us! We love a National Park and to discover there was such an important Revolutionary War battle site so close to us was awesome. This site is huge and has multiple trails, monuments and lots to discover and learn. We started in the Battlefield Visitors Center where they have a great little museum detailing the history of the Revolutionary War site. There is also a gift shop and a movie to enjoy. Oh, and don’t forget your stamp!

After stopping by the visitors center we decided to take a tour around the 9 major sites located around the Park. You can choose to bike or walk…but its HUGE so we drove and parked at each site. Once parked you can walk around and check out all there is to offer. At each stop there are monuments or plaques that detail a part of the battle that took place here. There is also a self-guided audio tour you can take through your cell phone. We all learned a ton on this visit! The highlight of the trip was Silas earning his Junior Park Ranger badge – a free and fun thing for kids to do!

*Side Note – every National Park has their own unique Junior Park Ranger program so make sure to check the visitor’s center! Most are free but some do have a fee. The Park Rangers are always really great with the kids! We all end up learning a lot from working through the books.

If you are into discovering more National Parks and need ideas, check out our guide to the Booker T. Washington National Monument. We also have some info on visiting two National Sites in Baltimore!

Haw River – North Carolina State Park

After you have filled your brains with a ton of Revolutionary War history its time to let your mind rest awhile and enjoy some quiet nature! Not too far from the town of Greensboro is the Haw River North Carolina State Park. This park boasts park of the year for 2018, and we quickly found out why! Lots of trails, a lake to canoe on, the river, tons of cabin space (perfect for group trips, reunions, etc), a disc golf course and a great education center. We were greeted right off the bat by an awesome and knowledgable Park Ranger in the welcome center. He went out of his way and spent extra time with Silas showing him some of the education room and giving us a mini tour. Its a beautiful park with tons to do!

What to do at Haw River State Park

We spent the afternoon walking the Fanny’s Ford Trail/Cox Loop Trail. These two trails combined made a great hike for us and included a suspension bridge to cross the river. I would suggest stopping by the welcome center always first to find out the information for each trail. There are a lot here!

After our hike we drove over to check out the disc golf course. This ended up being the most exciting part of our day! We totally ran into a copperhead on the course! And yes, I screamed – loudly. Also, I refused to go back the way we came and made us walk way out of the way to get back to our car. Silas deemed that the best day ever. So, to each their own. Encountering a copperhead would not be my ideal best day ever, but we have a great story and memory to share now! Just a note, there were signs everywhere about copperheads and other snakes. So just be aware when you visit a State Park, especially in the summer.

Honestly we barely even scraped the surface of exploring Greensboro but what a fun day it was! So let us know…have you spent some time in Greensboro, NC before? What are your favorite things to do there?

We love a day trip destination! Check out our full day trip plans to Southwest Virginia or travel to Historical Edenton North Carolina!

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