With West Point And Bobbitt Hole Closed, Durham's Fall Eno Moves To Pump Station And Cabelands
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"This kind of big scoop-out here on the corner is not the way that it used to be. We're missing this whole section of trail." That was Eno River State Park Superintendent Kim Radewicz, standing at Bobbitt Hole in late June. She was talking to WUNC for a story a year after Tropical Storm Chantal. The old path there is buried under at least a foot of river sediment, "maybe a couple of feet," she said. A new trail has to be built away from the water.
Bobbitt Hole is one of four well-known Eno spots in Durham that are closed this October, and they are all closed for different reasons. Taken together, they shift where Durham's fall river walks happen. This season the open Eno is mostly upland, downstream and on the trails that rarely make the photos.
West Point on the Eno. The city park at 5101 N. Roxboro St. closed to all vehicles and pedestrians on Monday, Sept. 14. Durham Parks and Recreation says it will stay closed "for a period of over 180 days," with the timeline still pending. Counting from Sept. 14, that means mid-March 2027 at the earliest. The city's only public promise is a reopening sometime in 2027. The work comes from the City's Capital Improvement Program and focuses on accessibility, bringing parking and paths up to ADA standards. Even the pedestrian bridge over the Eno is off-limits. That takes away a 404-acre park along a 2-mile stretch of river, 6 miles north of downtown.
The West Point mill. The historic mill is not part of the accessibility project. DPR says options are "still being explored" to repair and reopen it after the Chantal damage. So when the park reopens in 2027, the mill may still be closed.
Cole Mill Access and Bobbitt Hole. NC State Parks lists the Cole Mill Access at 4390 Old Cole Mill Road as closed. The state trail table lists the Cole Mill, Bobbitt Hole, Pea Creek, Cox Mountain and Fanny's Ford trails as closed too. In September 2025, Radewicz told The 9th Street Journal the whole Cole Mill Access would be rerouted and closed for "multiple months." When WUNC visited in July 2026, it was still closed. No reopening date has been published.
The swinging bridge at Fews Ford. WUNC described the suspension bridge as "unofficially considered a symbol of the state park," and as of July it was still closed. Repairs depend on engineers and an erosion report on the ground around the bridge. "There's so many external factors outside of anything I can control, but I would love for this to be open... by the end of the year," Radewicz said. That is a hope, not a schedule. The state lists the Fews Ford Access and Visitor Center at 6131 Cole Mill Road as "partially open."
The good news is that most of the state park is open. WUNC counted about six of 24 trails still closed in July. The open trails are the ones that sit away from the landmarks above.
These distances come from the current NC State Parks trail table, which was updated in September 2026.
The Pump Station Trail is a 1.5-mile easy loop and is listed as open. It was one of the first trails back after the storm. By mid-September 2025 it was open, though at the time only from the Pump Station Access. This October, rangers are holding two of the park's guided programs here, which are listed on the calendar below.
All three Laurel Bluffs sections are open. East runs 2.2 miles one way, Middle 2.5 and West 1.4. The state park's 7.5-mile stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea State Trail is open as well. This is the segment that follows the Eno toward Falls Lake. With the trails above Cole Mill closed, this is the longest open walk along the Eno in Durham this fall.
The Cabe Lands Trail, a 1.2-mile loop, and the Eno Quarry Trail, a 0.8-mile loop, are both listed as open. In October, both the Eno River Association and the park's rangers have scheduled hikes starting from Cabelands.
Fews Ford is partially open, and its upland trails are walkable. Buckquarter Creek is open as a moderate 1.5-mile loop. So are the Ridge, Fieldstone, Knight and Piedmont trails and the half-mile Eno Trace loop. On Holden Mill, the upland section is open and the riverside section is closed. The state does not list which Fews Ford parking, restroom or picnic areas are open. Check the Eno River State Park page before you drive out.
The West Point closure is about accessibility, and only one trail in the state park's table is marked accessible: the 0.8-mile Occoneechee Speedway Trail, which is open.
When Fews Ford closed in summer 2025, some regulars drove west to the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area in Hillsborough. The 9th Street Journal talked to one walker who made that switch and reported that hikers were "plentiful" on the mountain trail. Its hiking trails are listed as open, with three miles of hiking. Hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in October and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in November.
Penny's Bend Nature Preserve is listed by the North Carolina Botanical Garden as a public-access preserve, open dawn to dusk.
Back on North Roxboro Street, the city's Environmental Education Pavilion at 5253 N. Roxboro St. sits just north of West Point and stays open during construction. DPR says programs planned for West Point will move there and to other city sites. DPR also warns there "may be future closures in the area" while a new playground is built.
Most of the month's guided Eno programs are at the open access areas named above. Several need registration.
Oct. 23 has three of these events. You could do the morning tree hike at Pump Station, the afternoon Cabelands hike and the evening campfire on North Roxboro, all in one day. We didn't find any November programs posted on the state park, Association or Pavilion calendars yet.
The Festival for the Eno has long been held at West Point, and it changed before the park closed. In a March 2026 message, the Eno River Association's executive director said the board had voted to move away from the "status quo" model. For the Association's 60th anniversary, the plan was to hold the 47th Festival as a benefit concert at the Carolina Theatre on Sept. 12. Heather McEntire was leading the planning, and a free afternoon event was planned on the theatre's plaza. The same message said the Association intends to relaunch the Festival in 2027, "likely in the spring but unfortunately not at West Point on the Eno." No 2027 date or location has been announced.
For now, the Eno's best-known spots open on separate schedules. The swinging bridge has a hoped-for end-of-year date, West Point has a 2027 promise, and Cole Mill and the mill have no dates at all. Until then, Pump Station, Laurel Bluffs, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and Cabelands are the open stretches of river.
At The Cedeno Group, we live here too, and we keep an eye on things like which trailheads are open, because that's part of knowing Durham. If you have questions about the city, about owning a home here or about what's coming to your part of town, we're glad to talk in English or Spanish. Habla con Nosotros.
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