Merchants Millpond State Park — Attraction in Ahoskie

Such a beautiful and scenic place. Absolutely gorgeous, the views are breathtaking. Tons of cypress trees and Spanish moss. You can rent canoes or kayaks, and there are also tours and activities for kids.

Just visit their website or call to get select dates and what particular activities they have available. Just keep an eye out for ticks and snakes. Lots of them!

I highly recommend before you take your children, to do some research on the history of the swamp for it makes for a much more fun and educational visit. I’m told that kids can also collect badges from each of the state parks with Merchants Millpond being one of them.

These pictures were either taken on the trails or near the community center. The community center is a great place with a mini museum, definitely worth a visit.

At the center is also where you rent the canoes or kayaks.

There are plenty of trails with varying difficulty and one even with wheelchair/mobility scooter and stroller access, so something for everyone to enjoy.

The trails are well traveled and unless you go off the trail you shouldn’t have a problem with thorns.

Confirmed by the Park Ranger, there is an alligator that resides in the swamp so keep an eye out for him, if your lucky you might see him/her! I’m told it’s not very large but is a resident of the swamp.

There are also trails used for horseback riding. I’ve come across quite a few horses during my many visits whilst hiking.

Dogs are welcomed into the Park, but are supposed to be leashed at all times. I learned the hard way, when a Ranger told me very nicely to leash my dogs and it was Park Policy. Make sure to bring some water for you and your dogs.

There are maps posted of the trails for you to use as a guide and decide which one you’d...

9-30-23

It's been many years since I have been here. We come to parks to hike, so my thoughts and review are based on that.

We hiked each trail in the park in their entirety. All are very similar. Expect completely shaded and periodic views of the pond. But here is my breakdown:

Cypress Trail: Short and easy at .33 miles. Accessible by the boat ramp. Mostly flat, has boardwalks, and good views of the pond. Great for young families.

Coleman Trail: Easy at two miles and mostly flat. Has some roots but well-maintained with varying canopies. Periodic excellent views of the pond with some benches throughout. There is a marquis at the trailhead detailing the trail and its origination. Accessible at the boat ramp lot.

Bennets Creek Trail: Easy and 2.3 miles. The trail goes parallel along a dark creek at times but has an excellent boardwalk spur in a swamp about halfway through the trail. Accessible from both the boat ramp or visitor center lots.

Lassiter Trail: Easy but 7 miles as a loop. Intersected by a fire road. There are LOTS of roots and quite a bit of rolling hills. Very little views of the pond but lots of bridges over small streams. Accessible from the visitor center lot. Goes by a picnic area.

The pond with the Cypress trees, etc, is a unique habitat. The boat ramp and watching folks kayak through the water is a neat aspect, and perhaps this is the major draw to this park. It does look fun and something I would like to try. There are lots of wildlife here, including gators, but we only saw herons and deer...

As a personal policy, I do not stay in campgrounds as I like to camp as far from other humans as possible. In this case there were no national forests to camp along my journey from Chesapeake, VA and it was getting dark and needed to make camp. Merchant's Millpark happened to be at the right place at the right time and the only place to camp for that matter. I like that the sites are big, shaded and relatively private although it was fairly crowded and like all campgrounds, where there are humans, there are humans making noise.

In keeping with the North Carolina State Park's tradition of overzealous park rangers watching your every move, Merchant Millpond lives up to that tradition.

From what I recollect, all primitive sites. No hookups. No cell phone signal on either Verizon or Tmobile. The campground fee was expensive considering the lack of hookups but when you're literally the only campground for many miles, you can pretty much name your price. My only major complaint was that it required me to drive all the way around to the office to pay for the site then drive all the way back to the campground. That might sound picky but it was very inconvenient at the time. You couldn't just go pay for it the next day on the honor system despite the office closing 10 minutes after I arrived. Unfortunately I wasn't able to stick around to use any of the park's amenities the next day. As a campground, it'll do. Lots of skeeters but...