30 November 2019
What a great day! It rained on me from the time I left Jimmie and Stephen until the time I got back to their house after five day hikes at Hanging Rock State Park. The park is only about an hour out of Greensboro. It wasn’t a downpour but a steady drizzle the whole time I was at Hanging Rock.
I pulled into the visitor center parking lot around 12:30 pm and was immediately captured by the hostess. I found out she was originally from Miami. She and her husband sold everything and bought an RV and traveled the nation serving as host and hostess in the parks. Her favorite was Acadia in Maine.
She lit up when I said I was into waterfalls and wanted to also hike the Hanging Rock trail. She proceeded to give me a detailed description of how best to do the trail, how many “steps” you had on each trail and which waterfall was best for water flow. I didn’t think she was going to quit talking to let me on the trail. She also estimated she had hiked over 2000 miles on trails across the country. I loved the conversation and the advice.
I started out on the Hanging Rock trail. It’s a 1.3 mile one way trail. You start down a paved trail and drop to the creek bottom before you begin to climb, and climb and climb.
The hostess had told me the Window Falls trail had 170 steps to maneuver but I think every trail I did today had at least 170 steps.
I hate steps. They are never standard because of the terrain and even though they are a pain to climb, they are even harder to come back down them. They pound you into the ground.
Anyway, after a steady climb, I reached an overlook and one could easily confuse the overlook with the Hanging Rock. There is another trail that leads back to Hanging Rock and it’s worth it.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t go out on Hanging Rock. I satisfied myself with taking photos of it. With all the rain, the rocks were quite slick and all it would take would be one misstep and you would be over the edge.
Just as I was leaving, three very young children – I estimate 4 and 5 years old – headed toward Hanging Rock. I assumed their parents were right behind them but I did caution the kids to be very careful because the rocks were slippery. Their parents were much, much farther down the trail.
Every trail in the park is marked with signs warning you to be exceptionally careful while on the rocks and that injuries and deaths had occurred on the trail. I can’t imagine parents letting their kids run ahead of them on this trail.
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Another peculiar thing I noticed was doggie poop bags along the trail. They were not empty. Why someone would bother to take a poop bag, pick up the poop and place it in the bag and then leave it on the trail is beyond me. I found three different bags along the trail.
My next hike was the Indian Trail which has two waterfalls. At 0.4 miles is Hidden Falls and another 0.2 miles is Window Falls.
Hidden Falls wasn’t terribly impressive but it had a good stream of water coming over the top.
Window Falls was a little better. I assume it is called Window Falls because next to the falls is a rock formation with a hole in it.
From there I hiked to Upper Cascade Falls, a 0.2 out. It’s fairly impressive and is a short easy hike.
I was getting pretty tired by then but decided to go for the fall most recommended by the hostess – Lower Cascade Falls. This was the most impressive of the four. I’m glad I stayed and endured the hike. It’s fairly easy until you get close to the falls and then you have those damn steps again.
All total, I did over 5 miles of trails today. It’ll be an advil night tonight!
This is an outstanding park. The facilities are well taken care of, the trails well marked and wide, and most of the trails are either easy or moderate as far as difficulty. You need to put this park on your to-do list.
Tomorrow is only about 100% rain. If it is like today, I’ll probably drive to Stone Mountain State Park, about 2 hours from Greensboro. If it is a downpour, I’ll stay in Greensboro and visit with Jimmie and Stephen.
