Stone Mountain State Park

As with Georgia, North Carolina also has a Stone Mountain State Park. Ours is run by the state, whereas the one in Georgia is highly commercialized and operated by a private concessionaire. Ours is relatively wild, but the one is Georgia (my native state) has basically been reduced to a hideous amusement park about as vile as they come.

Normally the park here in NC is very crowded if you go on a weekend or holiday. It is one of our most popular parks and is readily accessible to people who live in places like Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Raleigh. The hiking there is good because of a very well maintained series of trails and a number of waterfalls and mountain summits that offer exceptionally nice views.

I think I have visited this park more times than any other in the state with the exception of Crowders Mountain State Park. Stone Mountain is only 70 miles from my home so I can be there in about an hour and a half. I chose to drive up very early on a Monday morning and the journey only took an hour and fifteen minutes. I got there before seven am and found that I had the trails all to myself. It was three hours before I finally encountered another hiker as I was taking a rest on Cedar Rock and preparing to head over to the trail that would take me to Stone Mountain.

At any rate, following here are some photos and video of my latest day-hike there. 

I thought that I would mention one thing that is important to me. When I go hiking I very much enjoy encountering wildlife. For some reason I never have much luck viewing wildlife at Stone Mountain State Park. I do see a lot of whitetailed deer, and I almost always have the opportunity to photograph turkey vultures. Beyond that, though, I rarely see anything else there in the way of wildlife. No bears, no coyotes, no snakes, very few birds (even though I hear a lot of bird songs). I don't know why this should be the case, but it is.

Part 1 of the hike. Over Wolf Rock and Cedar Rock.