Pickleball Courts in Cary, NC

Carpenter Park's features list states "Parking for 30 Cars", which is one of only two capacity figures any operator in this directory has given us for a pickleball site, and thirty spaces for a sixteen-acre park with a playground, a community garden, pedestrian trails and three pickleball courts is worth knowing before you drive out on a Saturday.

Neither of the other two parks states a capacity, a time limit, a permit requirement or a fee. Ed Yerha Park's page lists restrooms and a picnic shelter but says nothing about where to leave a car. The park on McCrimmon Parkway describes paved loop trails, a community garden and public art without mentioning parking at all.

Two of the three parks close at dusk. Ed Yerha Park publishes its hours as "Sunrise to Sunset", with no extension at all. Carpenter Park and the McCrimmon Parkway park extend those hours only in lighted areas, where visitors are taking part in an approved extended-use activity, until thirty minutes after it ends or 11 p.m., whichever comes first.

Only McCrimmon states lighting on its pickleball courts, so it is the one park where an evening game is a published possibility. Its features list marks those courts "Non-reservable, first-come, first-served", while the tennis court beside them is reservable sixteen hours ahead. Cary runs open play there on Monday evenings, 7 to 9 p.m.

Not one of the three parks states a surface material for its pickleball courts, so every venue on this page reads "Not stated" on surface.

What the town does describe is the shape of the provision. Carpenter Park's three courts are multi-sport, sharing their surface with basketball: "Multi-Sport Courts: Basketball & 3 Pickleball Courts". The lines under your feet there are not all yours. Ed Yerha Park lists one basketball slab and three pickleball courts as separate features, and the town calls it the home of "Cary's outdoor Pickleball courts". McCrimmon's are described as pickleball courts in their own right, beside a separate lighted tennis court.

Cary calls itself one of the country's premier destinations for pickleball, and Cary Tennis Park hosts the Professional Pickleball Association tour. Pickleball University runs instructional classes from beginner 101 up to the 400 level, taught by IPTPA-certified instructors.

There is a Cary Pickleball League in spring and summer, a Ladies' Ladder League in autumn and spring, and a Senior 55-plus mixed doubles ladder in summer, plus five one-day Royal Court tournaments a year, from Queen of the Creek in March to Dames of the Creekdom in October. Open play is Sunday afternoons 3:30 to 5:30 at Cary Tennis Park and Monday evenings 7 to 9 at McCrimmon. Much of that programme runs at two venues this page cannot publish.