Monday, March 5, 2012

Pilot Mountain State Park

Woke up early this morning needing something to do. Why not Pilot Mountain? Two hours later and I've reached the summit of Pilot Mountain State Park. The parking lot is about half full of visitors enjoying the sunny but chilly day. Bailey and I starts off at Little Pinnacle Overlook. The views are breathtaking. Next we head to the Big Pinnacle on the Jomeokee Trail (.8 miles). This trail is pretty cool. It's a loop trail around the base of Big Pinnacle with some spectacular rock formations and rock overhangs jetting out over the trail. Then the Ledge Spring Trail (2.2 miles) for a more strenuous loop hike. This trail spurs off Jomeokee Trail down along the base of the rock face where everyone apparently goes to rock climb. There is a shortcut called Three Bear Gulley that is practically a vertical trail up 30 ft of rock that is passable without a rope and harness and cuts the trail in half but I didn't take it. The last part of this trail is switchbacks going up about 1000 ft in elevation. I thought I was doing pretty good passing people on the trail and not getting passed except for a mother-daughter team going the opposite direction lapped me twice on the trail. Pilot Mountain SP has two parts, the mountain area and the Yadkin River area. Bailey and I explored everywhere around the summit of Pilot Mountain SP for the most part so now it's time to head over to the Yadkin River area about 10 miles away ( yes, we drive). When we got there we headed down the Yadkin Island Trail for about 2 miles in. We were looking for the river but somehow got onto the Bridle Trail instead which took Bailey and I the wrong direction. Running out of time, we turned around and headed back before the sun settled for the night. Now back to Charlotte. Visit a State Park near you soon. They have a lot to offer.

Total: 7 miles                                        WNC State Parks: 4                               Wild Turkey: 1

Big Pinnacle

View from the lower part of Ledge Spring Trail

The Shortcut is at the left of the sign

On my way back from the Yadkin River portion of the SP

Raven with a large wing span perched on top of the rock

Lower part of the Ledger Spring Trail

Posted by

1 comment:

  1. UnknownJanuary 17, 2014 at 9:22 PM

    If you find yourself back at Pilot Mountain State Park sometime, in the Yadkin Islands section, look for the Bean Shoals Canal trail. It's a short out and back trail along the river and you pass by old abandoned canal ruins. Not something you see every day. Happy hiking.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)