Budget travelers rejoice. There is one way you and the family or wife or girlfriend or buddies can feel as if you’re on a real vacation without blowing wads of cash on hotel rooms. Camp out!
Listen, I’m no modern woodsman, but me and my family’s first foray into the great outdoors here in North Carolina was … great. Choosing Hanging Rock State Park helped. Its 73 camp sites are spread out — moreso on the upper loop — and are close to trails, mountains and water features.
Accommodations include a small grill, a picnic table, a roomy spot to park your car or camper, and a nice, flat space for a tent. We stayed at site 10, which was right across from the path leading to the restroom and bathhouse facility.
The park’s top attractions are the five water falls. The Upper and Lower Cascade falls are easily the most popular. Both are a short hike from parking lots — Upper Cascade is a 0.4-mile jaunt from the vistor’s center lot — and both are well worth the stairs you have to climb to get back to your car.
Upper Cascades is a little beauty, producing a gurgling stream that continues to tumble down to a little rocky pool you can hike to if you’re gung-ho enough. Lower Cascades is bigger and more dramatic, with water streaming down a big cliff face into a placid pool of water. A pack of wild boys were trying to slide down a pile slick rocks, water-slide style, into the pool. Ah, youth. No doubt their tailbones were deeply bruised and sore the day after. It’s better just to stand there with your feet in the water and enjoy the calming sound of falling water.
Hiking the 1.3-mile Hanging Rock trail to the park’s namesake peak takes a bit more effort. The park brochure lists the trail as “moderate,” but that’s only for seasoned marathoners. Prepare to sweat, and avoid taking kids younger than age seven. This trail will blast your hammies.
Oh, but the summit is so worth the pain. It’s positively awe-inspiring, with views of Pilot Mountain and beyond on clear days. And the good news? It’s all downhill from there. On the trail, I mean. At least until you get to the trailhead, which is located at the east end of the Visitor’s Center parking lot.
Another beautiful spot, no matter what time of the year, is the 12-acre lake south of the Visitor’s Center. We went after Labor Day, when it had closed for the year, and the views of the empty beach, glistening water and blushing trees on the far shore were spectacular. The picnic pavilion, where we drank in these views, only adds to the scene. Like many park facilities, it was built from indigenous stones by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s.
The family and I didn’t see everything the park had to offer. Here’s a tip for any camper — give yourself time to relax. We were on a breakneck 48-hour schedule that nearly led to divorce. Take at least a full weekend to enjoy this park, and space out your hikes so no one gets tired and cranky.
Even though I was a total baby, achy and crabby thanks to a caffeine-free breakfast, I enjoyed moments of pure outdoor bliss. And all it cost me was the $18 a night for the camp site. I suggest you get yours at www.nc.reserveworld.com.
For more information on the park, visit www.ncparks.gov.
very true, as its the campsite and the services provided by the campgrounds which makes the vacations full of fun and enjoyable and happy.