First off, loon's park may not have the most creative features and biggest jumps, but the park is definitely the most well maintained park, everything is usually pristine, as for closeness, I have lived in durham for 18 years of my life, skied every resort (including snow and strat) I can say loon is the best, best for park, best for pow, best for terrain, huge vertical, decent steeps when the condition are right. The park is long and you can hit everthing in a lap besides the pipe. Locals there are cool and lodge chillen when the lifts stops is a great time aswell. The weekends get busy, but I never really wait too long, singles lines are fast, especially on the kanc.
and I drive from durham to loon in 1:20-1:30, you just gotta know the cop spots