These days you have to take the back door into Doughton Park, which is next door to Stone Mountain State Park on the east edge of the Blue Ridge Escarpment. I found that out the hard way when I tried…
Destinations
Places I’ve hiked and you should hike.
Fall color stroll at Moses Cone Park
by tom • October 24, 2010 • 5 Comments
You don’t come to Moses Cone to hike. The trails are all fat, gentle, and free of the roots and boulders that bring such pleasure across the Blue Ridge. Leaf Season weekends bring out altogether too many people and just…
Beyond the falls at South Mountains State Park
by tom • October 11, 2010 • 3 Comments
The quick read on South Mountains State Park is “High Shoals Falls and Everything Else.” This week I went looking for everything else. Actually I did stop by the waterfall — it’s right on the main route to the interior…
Table Rock and The Chimneys, Linville Gorge Wilderness
by tom • October 3, 2010 • 8 Comments
This is a can’t-miss hike if the weather cooperates. Table Rock, the stone uplift that forms the Linville Gorge’s most prominent peak, has amazing vistas at the top. About a mile and a half south, the Mountains to Sea Trail…
Further into the depths of Linville Gorge
by tom • September 25, 2010 • 7 Comments
Seeing the Linville Gorge from its heights a couple weeks back gave me a burning itch to check out its depths the next time around. One of the easiest ways to go deep is to find the Spence Trail on…
Hawksbill and more at Linville Gorge
by tom • September 18, 2010 • 3 Comments
I’ve been meaning to get back to the Linville Gorge Wilderness for months now, but I’ve been waiting for the local heat index to move from its usual summer setting (Generally Insufferable) to its early autumn range (Mildly Annoying). Last…
Grandfather Mountain – Attic Window via Grandfather Trail
by tom • September 4, 2010 • 7 Comments
I needed a week to recover from this one. The Grandfather Trail along the summit ridge at Grandfather Mountain State Park is a crazy obstacle course of ladders, cable routes and 50-ton boulders. Strong hikers can do all the trails…
Summer hikes at River Sections of Pilot Mountain State Park
by tom • August 22, 2010 • 4 Comments
I have as much fun finding these trails as I do hiking on them. They’re all tucked way, way back in the countryside, and while there are reasonably direct routes (like less than a half-dozen turns from a major highway),…
Another stroll at Stone Mountain (N.C.) State Park
by tom • August 15, 2010 • 6 Comments
You know how in the movies where the heroes are slogging through the jungle, then the camera shows subtle changes in scenery implying something big is about to happen, then they round a bend and see this vast civilization splayed…