Cedarock Park

Cedarock Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Old Mill Dam on Rock Creek
Location of Cedarock Park in North Carolina
Location	Alamance County, North Carolina, United States
Coordinates	35°59′41.36″N 79°26′24.15″W
Area	0.65 sq mi (1.7 km2)
Elevation	539 ft (164 m)
Established	1973
Named for	Large number of rocks and cedar trees in park
Visitors	140000
Governing body	Alamance County Recreation and Parks

Cedarock Park is a 500-acre (2.0 km²) nature preserve, historic farm, and passive-use park located near Bellemont in Alamance County, North Carolina. The park opened in 1975 with Ronald Dean Coleman being the Parks Director at the time in the county. He envisioned a natural area a few miles from town where anyone could come and explore some of the most beautiful property Alamance County has to offer.

Geographic setting

Cedarock Park sits on the banks of Rock Creek, a tributary of Great Alamance Creek on the northwestern side of the Cane Creek Mountains. Located in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, the land is hilly and occasionally steep.

Human history

Prior to its use as a park, the land was used as a farm by the Garrett family beginning in 1830. The site of the Garrett farm is part of the Cedarock Park Historic District and is known as Cedarock Historic Farm, an educational site where visitors can learn about farm life in 19th-century North Carolina and can encounter goats and donkeys.

Activities

The park has 6 miles (9.7 km) of trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horse riding, including some trails that are handicapped accessible. It has numerous picnic shelters, campsites, a fishing pond, playgrounds, three gazebos, and two courses.

The most popular trail at the park is the handicapped-accessible trail that leads to an old rock dam used for water diversion for a now-demolished gristmill. The dam site is erroneously called a waterfall in several places in park literature.