Saturday Adventures: Historic Yates Mill

On Saturdays, our family likes to explore all of the fun places within a short drive of Raleigh. We frequent many of the Raleigh and Wake County parks so I thought I’d share some of our Saturday Adventures with ya’ll.

This past Saturday we ventured to Historic Yates Mill located in south Raleigh. Yates Mill is a part of the Wake County Parks system and offers a variety of rich historical activities and exploration as well as beautiful nature.

We started by visiting the Finley educational center which had a good deal of hands-on learning and information about the history of the mill, local agriculture, and local history. The boys enjoyed playing with the dress-up clothes, and puzzles, and learning about how mills work.

Then we venture down the short path to explore the historic mill. The boys were fascinated with the water-powered mill. We briefly walked the Millpond trail crossing over the mill bridge and up the stone steps that overlook the mill. We didn’t walk around the entire pond as it was getting close to lunch and the smaller boys were ready to go eat.

On a previous visit, the boys and I walked down to the pond boardwalk where we encountered several people finishing and bird-watching. We saw a beautiful crane at the shore of the pond.

I can’t believe I’ve lived in the Raleigh area most of my life and until this year had never visited Yates Mill. It’s a beautiful historic site and wildlife refuge. We will certainly be back to explore more the park.

Update: December 2020 Visit to Yates Mill