Bandera Farms Park opened to the public in Summerfield on Sunday, giving riders, walkers and families a sprawling new natural space anchored by miles of wooded horse trails and one of the first finished stretches of the long-planned Piedmont Greenway. Conservationists, town leaders and community members gathered to celebrate the grand opening, marking the end of seven years of planning, land acquisition and construction.
According to WHQR, Piedmont Land Conservancy began buying the property in 2020, and the Town of Summerfield now owns and manages the park. The conservancy describes the site as a 120-acre wooded park, though a Town of Summerfield press release has described it as 115 acres — the two accounts differ on the exact acreage. Palmer McIntyre, a conservation planner, told WHQR that the park is protected forever by Piedmont Land Conservancy and will remain mostly natural regardless of ownership or town changes down the line.
That protection comes in the form of a conservation easement, which Piedmont Land Conservancy describes as a legal agreement permanently limiting development on the land. The conservancy holds that easement even though the town itself owns the park, giving Piedmont Land Conservancy a say over future development there. The same account notes the project drew nearly $4 million in grants over seven years of steady work.
What's Actually at the Park
Visitors will find a playground alongside a 4.5-mile network of horse trails that are also open to people on foot, though not to bicycles, per the conservancy's account of the project. The park includes two main parking areas, one of which offers horse-trailer parking, making it easier for equestrians to haul in and unload. It's a layout built as much for the horse community as for casual walkers.
The park also includes one of the first completed sections of the Piedmont Greenway, a corridor WHQR reports will eventually stretch 19 miles between Winston-Salem and Greensboro. The conservancy's account of the park describes this stretch as a 1-mile segment running along Reedy Fork Creek, while a separate greenway page from the same organization puts the figure at 1.2 unpaved miles that opened in 2026 — accounts that don't quite agree on the exact length. Either way, the segment is natural surface for now, with paving planned for later, the conservancy notes.
Four Governments, One Project
Summerfield, Greensboro, Guilford County and the Town of Oak Ridge all helped fund Bandera Farms Park, according to WHQR's reporting. Piedmont Land Conservancy's own account calls it the first time all four local governments partnered on a joint conservation and recreation project. Guilford County Commissioners played a particularly large role early on, voting in 2022 to allocate $2.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding toward construction, with the money directed to Summerfield, the conservancy says.
A Bigger Greenway Taking Shape Piece by Piece
Bandera Farms Park's trail segment is just one piece of a much larger undertaking. The Piedmont Greenway, facilitated by Piedmont Land Conservancy and the Piedmont Triad Regional Council, is planned as a 19-mile shared-use path threading through Kernersville, Summerfield and Oak Ridge on its way between Winston-Salem and Greensboro, with roughly 11 miles falling in Guilford County and about 8 miles in Forsyth County.
Other pieces of that network are already further along. The 1.2-mile Kerner Mill Greenway in Forsyth County is open and paved, and a 1.25-mile stretch from the Salem Lake Trail on Linville Road to East Forsyth High School is slated for construction in 2027. A separate phase along Kerners Mill Creek is currently in design and expected to be let for construction this fall, according to the City of Winston-Salem.
For now, Bandera Farms Park gives Summerfield residents a tangible piece of that broader vision — trails to ride, a playground for kids, and a protected stretch of woods along Reedy Fork Creek that, by design, isn't going anywhere.
