If you drove to Smith Creek Park this week expecting to park where you always have, you may have circled the lot at 633 Shenandoah Street wondering where everyone went. That address still works. It just isn't the only one anymore, and as of August 4, it isn't even the one the county wants you to use first.
New Hanover County held a ribbon-cutting that Tuesday morning for the Phase 2 expansion of Smith Creek Park, and officials went out of their way to remind people the ceremony was not happening at the original parking lot. The new entrance sits at 251 Lake Emerald Drive East, off Gordon Road, a few turns away from the park most Wilmington residents already know. Same park, technically. Second front door, practically.
Two Addresses, One Gordon Road
The original Smith Creek Park opened in 2011 around a 35-acre spring-fed lake, with a 1.3-mile loop trail, a playground, and access for non-motorized boats. That version of the park is still exactly what it was. What changed is what sits next to it.
Phase 2 adds 85 acres of what the county calls passive recreation, meaning it was never meant to look or function like a traditional park build-out. Here's what the two halves actually look like side by side:
| Phase 1 (opened 2011) | Phase 2 (opened Aug. 4, 2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance | 633 Shenandoah Street | 251 Lake Emerald Drive East |
| Land | 35-acre spring-fed lake and grounds | 85 acres, over 90% left in its natural state |
| Trail | 1.3-mile loop | 1-mile paved perimeter trail, plus unmarked spurs into nature trails |
| Signature feature | Non-motorized boat access | ADA ramp connecting to the Phase 1 loop |
| Added amenities | Playground | Restroom, picnic shelter, nature play, environmental education features |
Add the two loops together and you get roughly 2.3 miles of paved trail across the combined park, before you even count the spurs that peel off into the woods without a posted mileage. That's the number worth knowing if you're deciding whether this is a quick lap or a real morning walk.
The Math The County Wants You To Notice
Here's the part that changes how you should think about this expansion. An 85-acre addition sounds like 85 acres of new stuff to walk through. It isn't. County officials were specific about how little of that land was actually touched.
"Less than 10 percent of this land was touched, and that small footprint opens the other 90 percent to everyone to enjoy," said Jodi Rich, New Hanover County's Parks and Gardens Director, in the county's announcement of the Phase 2 opening.
Run that percentage against 85 acres and you're looking at something like 8 acres of actual construction, the parking area, the restroom, the picnic shelter, the paved mile, the nature play elements. The other 76 or so acres stay as they were: wooded, undeveloped, left alone on purpose. Board of Commissioners Chair LeAnn Pierce framed the whole project as a direct answer to what the county heard during its parks master plan process.
"When our community told us through the master plan that green space mattered most, we listened. That promise is a park, and it belongs to everyone."
That's a different kind of expansion than most people picture when they hear the word. It isn't more programmed space. It's more protected space, with just enough infrastructure laid down to let you walk through it.
What Actually Changed For A Saturday Morning
If you already have a Smith Creek routine, here's the concrete update. You now have a second entrance off Gordon Road at Lake Emerald Drive East, with its own parking, its own restroom, and its own picnic shelter. The paved mile there is flat and looped, built with an ADA-accessible ramp tying it into the original 1.3-mile lake loop from Phase 1, so the two sides of the park connect without backtracking to your car.
That matters for anyone weighing whether to bring a stroller, a dog on a leash, or a grandparent who needs a level surface. The new trail was built to that standard from the start. The nature spurs branching off it are a different animal, unpaved and unmeasured, there for people who want to go further into the trees without a set distance in mind.
The picnic shelter and nature play area give the new side its own reason to visit even if you skip the trail entirely. And the environmental education features, while the county hasn't detailed exactly what those will include, suggest this half of the park is being positioned as much for learning as for looping.
A Park That Was Worth Fencing Off
Worth knowing if you live near the Gordon Road corridor: the construction phase wasn't quiet. Back when the county broke ground on Phase 2, the site saw enough vandalism that officials installed a temporary construction fence and asked the Sheriff's Office to add patrols and temporary security cameras. The county also built a temporary walking path from Emerald Drive to the existing park, specifically so neighboring residents wouldn't lose their access to Phase 1 while Phase 2 was underway.
That detail says something about who this project was built for. It wasn't a remote parcel the county developed and then opened to whoever showed up. It sits close enough to existing neighborhoods that protecting resident access during construction was a documented priority, not an afterthought.
Two Parks, One Gate You'll Have To Choose
The practical takeaway for anyone who lives near Gordon Road: figure out which entrance actually gets you to what you want to do that day. If you're headed for the lake, the boat access, or the playground your kids already know, Shenandoah Street is still your address. If you want the newer paved loop, the picnic shelter, or a longer walk that connects both halves, Lake Emerald Drive East is the one the county is steering people toward now.
Either way, the story here isn't really about 85 new acres to explore. It's about 76 of those acres staying exactly as they are, on purpose, with a mile of pavement and a ramp built just wide enough to let you see them. That's a different kind of park expansion than the phrase usually implies, and it's worth knowing before you show up expecting a bigger version of the park you already had.
If you're new to the Gordon Road area, or thinking about what it's actually like to live near green space like this day to day, the team at Angela Drum Team Realtors knows the neighborhoods around it well. Reach out anytime to request a complimentary market strategy and home valuation, no pressure, just local knowledge when you're ready for it.
