WNCOutdoors.info Blog

We’ve add a new Trails section to HikeWNC and MTB WNC.  Believe it or not, we’ve never actually had a section of the sites dedicated to just the trails – until now!

“Trailheads” is still the place to find a trail by its location, since these are larger areas that represent groups of trails, hubs, or trail networks in the region. But you can now search for a specific trail if you know its name by clicking the new Trails tab at the top of each site.  Each trail now has its own bookmarkable page with all of its details, a map, and a place to leave ratings and comments. Of course, sharing a trail is easier now with the new pages dedicated to each one. And we plan to add more features and tie the trails pages into other sections of the site soon (like the Best Hikes section).

Choose a link below to check out the new Trails sections:
Trails on Hike WNC
Trails on MTB WNC

We’ve added several new trailheads over the last few months that we wanted to share. First, as we continue to round up the State Parks, we added Stone Mountain State Park in the northwestern part of North Carolina. Neat waterfalls and magnificent views from the expansive stone outcrops at the summit are accessible to hikers. Get all the information here.

Next, we added Bearwallow Mountain, a gem located on northeastern Henderson County. The mountain’s summit was recently put under a conservation easement, and a great new trail has been built to the top, where some fantastic views can be seen. Find the trailhead page here.

We hope you enjoy. Both places would make great destinations for fall color hikes starting in a few weeks!

The view from Bearwallow Mountain north to the Black Mountains

We just added two new waterfalls – Bard Falls and North Harper Creek Falls, both on North Harper Creek. These are located in the Pisgah National Forest’s Wilson Creek area, which includes drainages below the Blue Ridge and Grandfather Mountain. This area is not far west and north of Marion, Morganton, Hickory, and Lenoir, NC, making it closer to some of the state’s bigger population centers than mountains further west.

Bard Falls is a tumbling cascade which falls into a churning chute, before spilling into a huge swimming hole. It’s in a wilderness-like setting, and it’s an area not visited very heavily. Click here to see the full page on NorthCarolinaWaterfalls.info.

North Harper Creek Falls is a beautiful slide culminating in a drop nearly 40 feet high, with a deep pool at the bottom. There is plenty of room to hang out and enjoy the view. Click here to see the full page on NorthCarolinaWaterfalls.info.

Doesn’t a hike to a cool mountain waterfall sound great about right now with this summer heat? We hope you enjoy the hikes as much as we did!

We’ve added Carl Sandburg National Historic Site as a trailhead on HikeWNC.info. Though the area doesn’t contain a huge number of trails, it’s a nice place to hike and relax, and perhaps do some writing in seclusion as Carl Sandburg once did at his homestead named “Connemara”. About five miles of trails and paths are there for you to explore, and it’s kid-friendly. Perhaps you’d like a nice place to relax, enjoy some quiet seclusion and maybe even do a little writing yourself. This would make a great place to do that and ponder what Sandburg himself might have used as inspiration when he lived here.

Besides hiking, the National Park Service site offers a variety of activities during the summer and, of course, tours of the main house and prize dairy goat farm. Plan a visit to Flat Rock including  some hiking here this weekend!

We just added the Grandfather Mountain State Park Trailhead area to HikeWNC.info! Check it out for general information, history, the trail list, and a new Best Hike: Grandfather’s Profile. Grandfather Mountain is one of Western North Carolina’s finest and most recognized attractions, and several long backcountry trails and connections to other trails in the region make it a great destination for hiking as well. We hope you’ll enjoy hiking there as much as we do!

And keep watching – we have just completed a round of technical updates and are ready to start adding lots of new trailheads, trails, and hikes to HikeWNC.info and MTBikeWNC.com over the summer.

Come enjoy the great outdoors with SAFC by joining our hemlock surveyors on a moderate hike in one of the Pisgah National Forest’s prime eastern hemlock communities! We’ll amble through the hemlock groves at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education and along the Cat Gap Loop trail towards the Cedar Rock Falls area, while discussing the condition of the hemlocks in this region and the pest responsible for widespread hemlock decline. Participants will have the opportunity to learn more about the hemlock conservation initiative within the Pisgah National Forest, SAFC’s partnership with the USDA Forest Service, and techniques for assessing hemlock health and levels of stand infestation. This hike traverses less than 2 miles, roundtrip.

For more information, check out this Events page on SAFC’s web site.

Our latest “Field Research” is up on Breadcrumbs: check out Grandfather Mountain State Park’s Profile trail. The trail is beautiful this time of year, and would make a good, cool summer hike too (on a clear day) thanks to its elevation. You can view the details and download the track on its Breadcrumbs page.

One thing that surprised me about this trail? There’s actually a (very) small waterfall near the beginning of the trail, as it crosses Shanty Branch. This isn’t mentioned on any of the trail descriptions I’ve seen, but I think it’s pretty, and photogenic!

As always, this is just a preliminary map and we’ll be vetting this information more before putting it up on the sites (as we plan on doing for all of Grandfather Mountains State Park). Enjoy!

Although we don’t yet have adequate coverage of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to add it to the sites, it remains one of the most popular spots for hiking in Western NC so we thought this would be worth mentioning. An EF4 tornado touched down on the Tennessee side of the park during the huge tornado outbreak on April 27, ripping down thousands of trees. The park service has closed 7 trails, and more may be closed as cleanup efforts continue. More information, including a list of affected trails, can be found on the National Park Service’s web site (and there’s also a a stunning picture of a mountainside stripped bare of trees):
http://www.nps.gov/grsm/parknews/tornado-closure.htm

Beech Mountain officially opened its Emerald Outback Trail Park, adding 8 miles of hiking and mountain biking trails to the inventory in WNC!  This is Phase 1 of what will be the larger Beech Mountain Trail Park. The trails are open to the public 7 days a week and parking is available at the trailhead. We hope to have more detailed information about the trails posted on the web sites soon; for now, here’s a story about the opening from The Mountain Times:
http://www2.mountaintimes.com/watauga_weekly/Adventure_Park_opens_Emerald_Outback_Trails_id_003449

And here’s a link to the official web site for Beech Recreation, which includes more information about the trails including a map and video:
http://www.beechrecreation.org/

The N.C. Division of Forest Resources lists the following trails as temporarily closed in Dupont State Forest:

• Bridal Overlook Trail
• Hill Top Loop
• Cascade Trial
• Galax Trail

And these appear to be permanently closed:

• Grassy Dam Trail
• Laurel Trail
• Little Briery Trail
• URC Trail
• Vista Trail

The Galax trail closure is a bit concerning, since it’s the only direct way to get from the Hooker Falls area up to Triple & High Falls on a bike. There are some longer, roundabout ways, one of which involves a busy highway. And it’s also sad, since it was closed due to massive erosion taking place along the path. This trail was touted as one of Dupont’s first “sustainable” trail projects back when the waterfalls area was acquired, but it didn’t wear well – horse hooves just tore it to pieces. Hopefully, it can be either re-routed or armored to stand up to the traffic that it gets when open.

The others are mostly short, boring, overgrown, and/or dead-end trails that will have no impact to recreation. In fact, the one time I tried to hike the Grassy Dam trial, I lost it after about 100 yards and struck out through the woods instead.