Summerfield's newest and largest park was planned around horse trailers. It is a 120-acre equestrian preserve on Bunch Road with a playground and a greenway built alongside. The design splits it into two parks that share one property. One half is a family stop with a picnic shelter. The other is a trailhead with its own trailer parking. Each half has its own parking lot and its own restroom building.
The Town will open the park with a grand opening on Sunday, November 8, from 2 to 5 p.m. Which half you head for depends on whether you're coming with kids, with a horse, or with a long walk in mind.
The mileage runs through the horse barn
The Town of Summerfield's project page calls Bandera Farms "a nature-based, equestrian-focused preserve." The trail numbers back that up. About 4.5 miles of dedicated horse trails make up most of the park's trail system. The Piedmont Greenway gets a one-mile segment that runs parallel to them. According to the Piedmont Land Conservancy, the horse trails are open to people on foot too, and the park includes a picnic shelter and restrooms.
The funding list reads like a horse park's budget. Guilford County gave $2.3 million. Three state and federal programs gave $500,000 each: the North Carolina Great Trails State Program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund. The Recreational Trails Program added $100,000. The NC Horse Council contributed $50,000, and its name on the list says a lot about who the park was planned for.
The site plan follows the same priorities. The Town's January groundbreaking release lists "separate entrances for cars and horse trailers" next to the trails and the playground. The trailheads were redesigned in 2022, after an extra 4.8-acre tract next to the original 115 acres was acquired. Big trailers need room to turn, and keeping them away from a family's SUV takes planning that a neighborhood park never needs.
Town Manager Charles "Twig" Rollins summed up the park's place in town in an interview with WGHP this August:
"This is our third major park. We have an athletic park. We have a community park, and now we're going to have this equestrian park that will have normal walking trails, equestrian walking trails, another playground."
Of the town's three parks, Bandera Farms is the one built around horses.
The restroom that was cut and then restored
If the budget had stayed where it was after last year's cuts, the two halves would not be so evenly matched. The Northwest Observer reported in June that the second restroom building "had been cut last year as part of $2 million in cost reductions." State, federal and partner grants cover nearly all of the project's $4.39 million cost, so Summerfield had kept its own spending low.
In May, the Town Council voted to put the restroom back, drawing $400,000 from the town's reserves. That money covers the extra building plus the electrical and related work. Rollins explained the timing to the Observer. Adding it later would mean bringing in a crane twice, and the prefabricated restroom buildings were chosen to save money.
"People have always wanted the second bathroom, and it's cheaper to do it now than to do it later."
He also told the paper that a crane "can be $1,000 an hour from the time they leave to the time they get back."
Without that vote, a parent at the playground and a rider unloading at the trailhead would have shared one restroom building somewhere on a 120-acre site. With it, each parking lot has a restroom nearby, and each half of the park can be used on its own.
Which half is yours
WGHP described the layout as two parking lots and two restroom buildings. One restroom sits closest to the adventure playground and picnic shelter. The other sits nearer the trailer parking and the trail entrance. Here's how that plays out depending on your plans:
- Playground side. This is the stop for an hour with kids or a picnic. The Adventure Playscape uses natural elements and is designed to encourage creative play, according to WGHP. In August, the station reported it was the last piece of the park left to build, with installation expected in late August.
- Trail side. This is where riders park and unload, and where hikers start the trail network. The horse trails and the natural-surface greenway mile start from here. The Northwest Observer called the property a "hiking, cycling and equestrian park."
- Both sides. Hours will be dawn to dusk. A Town caretaker will live in the house on the property, open the gates, and check on the trails, trash cans and restrooms.
The Town's project page says opening details "will be forthcoming." Before you load up the dog or the mountain bike, check the park's rules at summerfieldnc.gov.
If you have a dog, the long-term plan is encouraging. Rollins told WGHP there are "future plans to add another dog park here," and the land for it has already been graded. That is a future plan, though. It won't be ready on opening day.
The greenway mile leads off the property
The horse trails stay inside the park. The greenway mile is the start of a much longer trail. The Piedmont Land Conservancy describes the Piedmont Greenway as a planned 19-mile shared-use trail between Greensboro and Winston-Salem. It would run through Summerfield, Oak Ridge and Kernersville, with about 11 miles in Guilford County and 8 in Forsyth. In Guilford County, the route mostly follows Reedy Fork Creek, the same creek that forms one edge of Bandera Farms.
The Conservancy's greenway page says no segment of the trail is open yet. It lists Bandera's mile as planned to open in 2026. On the Forsyth end, a 1.25-mile section from the Salem Lake Trail to Hastings Hill is slated for construction "in the near future." That puts the Bandera mile in line to be the first finished piece of the whole route. For now it is a natural-surface path, and the plan is to pave it as the full greenway gets built.
The creek explains why four governments shared the cost of the land. Reedy Fork Creek is "a vital source of Greensboro's drinking water," according to the Town, and the park adds buffers along it. Guilford County, the City of Greensboro, Oak Ridge and Summerfield all helped buy the land through the Piedmont Land Conservancy. The Town says this is the first time all four have partnered on a joint conservation and recreation project. The whole park sits inside Summerfield, and the Town owns it and looks after it.
Fitting November 8 into the season
The opening comes during a busy stretch for Summerfield. These dates are all confirmed as of this writing:
- Friday, November 6, 7 p.m. Summerfield Farms hosts "That's Amore: An Italian Wine Dinner," five courses by 1618 On Location, inside The Barn at 3203 Pleasant Ridge Road. Check Summerfield Farms' events page for tickets.
- Sunday, November 8, 2 to 5 p.m. Bandera Farms Park grand opening on Bunch Road, between Reedy Fork Creek and I-73. The Town's Fall 2026 newsletter says to watch for an official announcement with the details.
- Saturday, December 5, 5:30 p.m. The Town Tree Lighting at Summerfield Athletic Park, 5200 US-220, one of the three parks Rollins named.
The opening runs only three hours, and November light is short. If you'd rather walk the trails than circle for a parking spot, plan a weekday-morning visit for later that month. The gates open at dawn.
Kathy Haines has lived in the Triad for decades and has watched Summerfield's parks grow up around the town. Bandera Farms Park adds a different kind of open space to the northwest corner of the county. If you'd like to know which homes and roads sit closest to the new trails, or how the park might figure into your plans in Summerfield, Kathy Haines is glad to talk it through. Schedule a Consultation.
