Stone Mountain

This weekend we planned a day trip to Stone Mountain State Park in North Carolina. Since we knew the weekend was supposed to be really nice, i started looking around for someplace close by but new to visit. Stone mountain is only about an hour and half away, almost the same distance as Pilot Mountain. i found some information about the different trails to hike, and we decided on the Stone mountain loop which took us to the summit of Stone mountain, and then back down to the water falls.



The weather was nice, and the scenery gorgeous! This is an old chimney stack along the trail.

Almost to the top, we had to stop and take a few breaks. The hike was listed as strenuous and they were not kidding. It was a 4 mile loop..which doesn't sound too bad, but it was 2 miles straight up the side of the mountain and two miles straight down the other side with very little flat ground inbetween.



We finally reached the summit! Wow!



The hike was definitely worth it! The view was amazing! It is hard to capture the enormity of this rock face, but it was immense!

My budding geologist studying the rock. He even brought his rock and mineral guide with him and carried it in his backpack. :)

We then we took a never ending stairway to the bottom of the mountain, and then more stairs back up to the top of the waterfall. The hike was a bit more strenuous than we were expecting, and we passed a few people along the trail who i'm seriously not sure were going to make it.






At the base of Stone Mountain was The Hutchinson Homestead. We look lots of pictures of the log cabin, barns and garden area. It had the most amazing view of Stone mountain. We could see climbers repelling down the face of the mountain. After leaving the homestead, we hiked to the Stone Mountain Falls.

At the base of the falls.

Stone Mountain Falls cascades over 200 ft. down the granite mountain face. We climbed more stairs to get to the top of the falls.

It was a truly amazing view. We really enjoyed Stone Mountain State park, and look forward to returning again. There were many trails that we did not hike, and other waterfalls we did not get a chance to see. This may be a new favorite hiking spot!