Wake County, North Carolina's newest park is a dump...literally! The county keeps one landfill in operation at any given time and filled up the northern landfill two years ago. They replaced it with one in the southern part of the county and just this past weekend opened up a new park on the old north landfill.

Their creativity in naming this park should not go unnoticed. They decided to name it:



That's right -- the ever creative and oh so inviting, "North Wake Landfill District Park." There are a multitude of other names that they could have bestowed on the park, but that is what they chose.

The local TV channel covered the park opening heralding the park as a one-of-a-kind facility. Somewhat sadly, this landfill is one of the highest points in Wake County at 468 feet above sea level on top of 5 million tons of waste. For more information, you can read the article here: http://www.wral.com/news/local/notew...story/7938869/

Going to the website of the park, they talk about the "spectacular views" that can be had on the multi-use overlook trail. They also talk about how you can't have fire of any kind in the park due to the landfill gas collection system that is comprised of 55% methane.

I'm always one for scenic views and being able to go as high in elevation as I can to get them. That made a journey to this park something that I had to try. I had pretty high hopes for this park at this point. After all, the Wake County Parks system is responsible for some really nice parks such as Blue Jay Point and Yates Mill. Surely this would be no exception! So with that thought in mind, my wife and I headed out to this "innovative" park.

You have to pass by what used to be security gating for the landfill to get to the park. The park has a nice playground area a little bit away from the trash heap that isn't too bad and I didn't detect much of a smell over in that area. At that point, my impression was that the park seemed like a neat place -- if not a little bit surreal and unusual.

Here is one of the pavilions. Notice on the far right of the frame the large flame. The flame is a constant burning stream of methane from the decomposing trash heap.



Speaking of that trash heap, it's very visible from pretty much any point in the park. Here is the playground parking:



I guess that's a little bit nicer than the view of this old pile of tires from the overlook trail head parking area:



And check out these pipes that are located all over the heap:



We headed up to the overlook. About 3/4 of the way up, you pass this one place where the smell of methane is almost overbearing. If it took any longer to walk through that area, it probably would be overbearing. Up at the top, you do get quite a nice view of the surrounding area. This would be great -- until you realize that the surrounding area is suburbia and other parts of the landfill.

Here is what the view from the top is like:



It is true that you can see the Raleigh downtown skyline from this view, but it's so far away that you better bring a big telephoto lens if you want to do any photography of it.

One thing that these pictures don't convey is just how bad the smell is when you are standing on top of a pile of trash and the wind starts to blow. Between that rotten trash smell and the methane, the level of enjoyability of such a view goes down significantly.

I had planned on shooting the sunset that night from the top of this park, but the smell was just too much. After about 20 minutes of being up there waiting for the sun to set, we simply couldn't take it anymore and went back to the car. The sun was setting just as we got back to the car, and so I took this last picture of the sunset over the North Wake Landfill District Park:



All in all, you can probably tell that I didn't exactly enjoy my visit. I think the most concerning part for me was being exposed to that much methane in such a limited space. I can't imagine that prolonged exposure (i.e. visiting often) is all that good for you. I certainly felt a little weak for about an hour after my visit.

Wake County certainly has come up with a unique use for this land. It is my hope that over time, the amount of methane and the smell of the trash will be reduced enough to make this park enjoyable. Perhaps in cooler weather it will be better. I don't think I'll be giving this one another chance anytime soon. If you are still interested in visiting the park, I'm certainly not going to stop you. There are a series of walking trails, and maybe it doesn't smell so bad down there. Just don't get your hopes up too much -- this park has definitely earned its name.

Great series of shots. Looks like you had a great visit.





:)

With regard to the smell..."They all do that"

Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA is built on landfill. There are a couple of other parks in the vicinity that are also built on landfill.

When Shoreline was built, they were supposed to include a methane recovery system. They didn't and concert goers would ignite small methane fires when they put out smokes on the lawn Of course, the city soon realized the contractor didn't install the required system and they dug the lawn up and installed one--that smelled awful. To camouflage the smell, they poured the stuff you find in porta-potties on the ground--I'm not sure what was worse

Those pipes give the city a way to keep track of the decomposing material. Plus, they probably reclaim the methane and use that to produce electricity. The good news is you have a park and over time, the stench will disappear.

We have a reclaimed landfill near my home that has been made into a park...

The county named it after a local politician,

what a legacy, having a pile of rotting,festering garbage named after you

Though that seems fitting for politicians

Originally Posted by zentrickster We have a reclaimed landfill near my home that has been made into a park... The county named it after a local politician, what a legacy, having a pile of rotting,festering garbage named after you Though that seems fitting for politicians

The comments here are great.

ian408 -- Indeed, the good news is that we have a park and maybe in the winter it will be a little better. I just think that it will be a solid 5 years or so before the smell mostly goes away and the park is more enjoyable.

That said, they really thought long and hard on the name for this park ;)

Karl