Stone Mountain Park, North Carolina.

Lately I haven't had a lot of time to go hiking. I've been helping my son a lot, plus the responsibility of having to be around the homestead to care for my wife's elderly mother. In late March the pressure should slacken and I can go back to hiking and camping when I choose.

That said, I was able to get away for most of last weekend. One of those three days I spent hiking in Stone Mountain State Park. I like that park because it has a lot of exposed rock, decent forest cover, a number of impressive waterfalls, and an excellent network of hiking trails, a few of which I still haven't hiked.

So on Saturday I got a very early start and drove up. Another plus for me is that it's a genuinely mountainous area and only a little over an hour from the house. If traffic is light I can get there in under an hour.

I ended up getting there just a tad later than I like to, which meant that I missed seeing the roving deer out browsing for breakfast, and the wild turkey that seem to like to accompany them in the early light. But that was tempered by the fact that I got to hit the trails before all but a few of my fellow humans. I spent the main part of the day hiking a six-mile loop that took me from the parking area, over the summit of Stone Mountain, down the other side, along the base of the peak to the upper Stone Mountain Falls and then a return to the ridge line and back to Andy's car (which I borrowed because my truck uses a lot more gas than his Santa Fe).

Here, then, are some images and video of my main hike from last Saturday.

On the summit. Said to be the most photographed tree in North Carolina.

The stairs alongside upper Stone Mountain Falls.

A rock climber on the face of Stone Mountain.

A stitched panorama of the face of Stone Mountain.

Local Cred.

Sometimes I don't give enough credit to the beauty of my current home state of North Carolina. But Carole and I do a lot of touring and vacationing right here within our state's borders. Granted, I don't think our state park system is as robust as it should be, and I would like to see more wilderness areas created and an expansion of National Forest recreation areas. But you could pick and choose places to hike and bike and kayak here and spend years getting it all done.

We certainly have no shortage of natural beauty. Sea coasts. Lakes. Rivers. Whitewater. Mountains (the highest in the eastern USA). Waterfalls. Long-distance hiking trails. Wilderness areas. And so on.

So, here's to the outdoor activity potential of North Carolina!

Plenty of opportunity for rock climbing!

You want views? We got views.

Good ol' Stone Mountain!

Return of the eastern elk.

Coyote in Cades Cove.

The return of the elk!

Stone Mountain Hike (Part III)

After I spent a long and relaxing time on the summit area of Stone Mountain I headed off toward Stone Mountain Falls which is on the far side of the mountain's ridge line. Strolling along I was impressed once again with the changes in the trail since I last hiked here. It occurred to me that all of this work must have been accomplished with at least some aid from vehicles--at least pickup trucks. So the wider trails obviously serve as roadbeds for trucks from time to time. Fortunately, I've never encountered park vehicles on these trails, and I hope I never do.

Because my legs are still so weak from my weeks of inactivity due to the surgery, the hike to the falls seemed much longer than it did. My memories of the hike kept telling me that I should be at the falls when in fact I still had a fair distance to travel. When I finally did arrive at the top of Stone Mountain Falls, I found the biggest crowds of the day. Which is appropriate, since the falls are easy to access via a picnic area trailhead.

If you've never been, Stone Mountain Falls are a neat sight. It's not so much a waterfall as an enormous sliding cascade. Still, it's a dangerous place and more than a few idiots have died here mucking about on the slick surface of the falls. There is no shortage of stupid people, so I'm sure there will be more such stories in the years to come.

After I looked at the falls and took a few photos I headed on down. I dislike crowds, especially when I'm on a hike. This is my time (supposedly) for solitude, so the sounds of screeching people gets on my nerves pretty quickly. So in short order I was ready to complete the loop, pausing along the way to take photographs of whatever piqued my interest.

One more great photo of the soaring Turkey vultures.


The top of the Falls.

Here was Stone Mountain Falls--a stitched panorama.


The Falls from the bottom, with many humans.

This cool little shelf is about 1/4 mile from the base of the falls.

The well maintained trail leading toward the homestead display.

I like this little scene in the streambed.

Reminders of the power of Mr. Gravity and Frau Wasser.

Where I always have to stop to create a panorama of the face of Stone Mountain.

This is called "The Great Arch" and is one of the more popular rock climbing routes on the cliff face. If I ever learn to rock climb, this is where I'll go to take lessons.

The cliff face of Stone Mountain, North Carolina.

Test Hike!

I visited Stone Mountain State Park today. It's only a two-hour drive from the house and I really needed to get up to the mountains, at least for a few hours. I wanted to try out my knee on a short and relatively easy hike. It did okay, but for the first time in my life my legs feel weak. That sucks. I've always had strength in my legs, even when my upper body strength was lousy. I had a hard time climbing up to the top today, even on the improved trail system the park now has in place. I have my work cut out for me to complete my physical recovery.

I'll post more on the hike tomorrow.

This self-portrait came out pretty good. I was moving as fast as I could up the steep slope near the summit of Stone Mountain. I just set the timer and started (kind of) running.

The summit area of the mountain was PACKED with turkey vultures. So I sat down on the exposed rock, put the telephoto lens on the camera, and took about seventy photos, hoping that at least a few of them would come out okay. I got lucky, and this was one of the good ones. Vultures are one of my favorite birds. Huge, and resourceful, and extremely intelligent.

This is Stone Mountain Falls. A bit over 200 feet, they say, in a series of cascades. I think a moron recently got killed here--he ignored the butt-load of warning signs and climbed over the fence and went out on the slippery rock surface. Death followed.