Orange County

Orange County is blessed with an assortment of paved and unpaved greenways and trails that offer residents access to stunning landscapes, cultural heritage sites and close-to-home outdoor resources. The County is home to a section of well used Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the Eno River. Most of the county’s greenways are located within the cities and towns of the County, including Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. One of the signature greenways in Orange County is the Hillsborough Riverwalk, a paved, ADA accessible, urban greenway along the Eno River that stretches nearly 2 miles from Dimmocks Mill Road/Gold Park through West Hillsborough and Downtown over to the Occoneechee Speedway property trails. Riverwalk is the primary route of the NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) and will give those traveling the MST, once completed, access to restrooms, restaurants, shopping, lodging, and a post office. Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation maintains a system of approximately 17.6 miles of urban greenways and trails. The greenway system enables Chapel Hill citizens to enjoy recreational benefits as well as alternative transportation to residential areas, community parks, and shopping centers via an aesthetically pleasing interconnected system of linear open spaces. The greenways include both natural surface trails and paved trails and are great for pedestrian transportation as well as bicycle transportation. The signature greenway in Chapel Hill is the Bolin Creek Greenway, which extends across a portion of the community. Below is a list of the trails and greenways in Chapel Hill: • Battle Branch Trail • Bolin Creek Trail • Cedar Falls Trail • Dry Creek Trail • Fan Branch Trail • Lower Booker Creek Trail • Meadowmont Trail • Tanyard Branch Trail • Ayr Mount-Poet’s Walk • Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail • North Carolina Botanical Gardens and Trails In addition to the connections to Chapel Hill's trails and greenways, the Town of Carrboro has a few of its own trails. The signature greenway in Carrboro is the Libba Cotten Bikeway. Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was a legendary folk-blues musician who was born in the 1890s in the area later incorporated as Carrboro (mural pictured below). Carrboro is also home to the Frances Shetley Bikeway.