On the Fair's Last Saturday, The Grounds Opens Its New Creek Trail for Four Hours

On Saturday, October 10, from 1 to 5 p.m., the new multi-use trail at The Grounds opens to the public along restored Upper Silas Creek. That afternoon is the only trail window left during this year's Carolina Classic Fair, which runs through October 11. Construction on the trail finished in August 2026. Outside a short list of event days, it stays closed until Phase I construction wraps and full-time security and maintenance are in place.

The fair is in its 144th year, so it's hardly new. The ground around it is what's changing. For decades, the corner of University Parkway and Cherry Street has been a place people park at. With the trail, a new crosswalk and a greenway study now in progress, it's being rebuilt so people can walk through it. On October 10 you can see the first finished piece of that change.

What's back along Upper Silas Creek

The Grounds is the redevelopment going up near the Fairgrounds, led by Carter and Front Street Capital. The project's plans call for a one-mile trail loop tied into greenways and sidewalks. The creek is the main feature.

The developers describe the Upper Silas Creek restoration as fixing about 80 years of severe erosion along the stream banks and side slopes. That work includes:

• Stabilizing the banks and lowering their height
• Building a floodplain bench to cut erosion and keep sediment out of the water
• Planting more than 200 new trees and 30,000 shrubs, grasses and perennials
• Removing invasive species and adding new wetland habitat
• Adding a nature path with benches, seat walls and open grassy spots along the creek

Dedee Delongpré Johnston, Chief Sustainability Officer at Wake Forest University, called it "a much-needed green space amenity that will be available to the entire community."

The trail opened before the buildings did. Adam Parker, Senior Vice President of Carter, told WXII in early September that the retail portion, the student housing and the office building are planned to be ready by fall of next year. So the October 10 walk takes you past an active construction site, with the stream already restored and the buildings still going up around it.

Three gates and a crosswalk

Access on sneak-peek days runs through three gates:

1. Piccolo Lane, on the east side
2. University Parkway, on the west side
3. A new Wake Forest University gate at University Parkway and Faculty Drive

The third gate depends on the newly rebuilt University Parkway/Cherry Street intersection. Parker described it this way before the Wake Forest season opener:

"There's now a crosswalk that goes over University Parkway. It's an at-grade crossing, so people can safely cross the street."

"At-grade" means the crossing is at street level, with signals, not a bridge overhead. That matters on a fair Saturday. The Grounds says foot traffic through the intersection is expected to be especially heavy on event days. It asks drivers to slow down, obey the signals and safety staff, and yield to pedestrians. Walkers will find temporary security in place and should stay on the marked, paved paths.

Building October 10 around the trail window

The four trail hours fall in the middle of the fair's longest day. Saturday hours run 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and ticket gates close at 9 p.m. Here's one way to fit it all in.

1. Park once. Regular day-of parking is $10, cash or card, at the Wake Forest-operated lots at LJVM Coliseum and Allegacy Financial Stadium. The October 3 football crowds that brought $30 and $40 lots and free shuttles were a one-day setup tied to the Wake Forest-Stanford game. We found no similar shuttle plan announced for October 10. If you park in the fair's advance VIP Leaf Lot, the fair says that lot must be empty by 8 p.m. for fireworks.
2. Ride in the morning. A Saturday daytime wristband costs $30 if you buy it before noon, and it's good until 2 p.m. That band runs out right around the time the trail opens.
3. Walk the creek between 1 and 5. The trail is a separate site with its own gates. Your fair admission doesn't cover it, and it doesn't need to.
4. Come back for the grandstand. The OTTPA Tractor Pull is the October 10 grandstand show. Regular admission is $10 for ages 6 and up, plus a $3 gate surcharge. Children 5 and under get in free.

Rides can also be bought by the ticket at 50 cents each, or 120 tickets for $50. The fair's 2026 vendor list includes Boom! Boom! Boba, Bulkogi Truck, Taste Jamaica Food Truck and Vic's Grill Puerto Rican Cuisine. Visit Winston-Salem lists the nine-stop scavenger hunt and the World of Wonder sideshow exhibits as new this year.

If you're going on a weekday instead

You won't see the trail on a weekday, but the fair is cheaper. Weekday admission is free before 1 p.m., Monday through Friday. Each day also has its own promotion:

The fair's own pages give different age limits for the October 9 kiddie wristband, so check with the fair before you count on it.

The missing link between 25th Street and the creek

Today, you can't walk a greenway from downtown all the way to this trail. The Long Branch Trail currently ends near 25th Street. On September 22, the City of Winston-Salem described Phase 3 as a feasibility study weighing routes from that end to The Grounds, the Fairgrounds, Wake Forest's athletics facilities, Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the Intergenerational Center. The study's public meeting took place September 30 at Samaritan Ministries. Project information and a public survey are still posted on the study's project page.

The bus covers part of that gap. WSTA's route redesign, effective August 30, shifted most service from 60-minute to 30-minute frequency. Route 106 connects the Clark Campbell Transit Center and 25th Street with the Reynolds Boulevard and Shorefair Drive stop, and it runs on Saturdays and Sundays. It's a regular route, not a fair shuttle, so check the timetable before you plan around it.

For more of the city's trail network, the new Winston-Salem Area Greenway Guide from WSATPO and Piedmont Legacy Trails maps 19 greenways and trail segments covering more than 30 miles. It lists parking, surfaces and trailheads, and it's free at piedmonttrails.org. The next greenway meeting is a Salem Creek Greenway open house on Wednesday, October 21, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Salem Lake Marina, 815 Salem Lake Road. The city is looking at fixes for a stretch that floods and closes from time to time.

After the fair, the trail's other scheduled openings are Wake Forest home football games. On those days it opens three hours before kickoff and closes 90 minutes after the final whistle, unless The Grounds announces otherwise.

Projects like The Grounds and the Long Branch extension change how people get around a part of town, and they often change what nearby homes are worth too. At Pilot Group Real Estate, we keep an eye on that from Pilot Mountain down through the Triad. If you own a home near the University Parkway corridor and want to know where it stands as this area takes shape, request your free home valuation and we'll walk through it with you.