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Preface: If you are coming from 40 east of the park going west, the drive through Burke county is nothing less than spectacular. NC 18 and George Hildebrand Road are rural mountain drives of pure awesomeness. Make sure you have gas and your car is running well. Hallelujah for GPS because holy freaking nothing around for miles. I can't stress this enough. You will lose cell service when you enter the entrance to the park.
Came on a Monday at about 8:30 am and there may have been ten cars at the Jacob parking. Perfect.
The kiddo and I did the High Shoals Falls loop which is about 2.7 miles. It is labeled as strenuous with blue markers. It is definitely difficult. Most people just take the LEFT trail from the parking lot to the Falls and back. It is one mile each there and back. This side has a lot of stairs and runs parallel to the river. Clearly more scenic and if you are looking for that, stick to this side.
The 2.7 mile loop takes you above the falls and back down. The aforementioned left side is where I would go up (easier to ascend and scenery) and you will come down the right. The right isn't as rocky and I thought this was why it was the easier side coming down. Bathrooms are right near the parking at this part of the loop.
My 7 year old could do this and we took it slow. It took us about 1.5 hours and we stopped for photos etc. This is a difficult trail but it isn't the worse I've done. It is manageable IMO if you are in decent shape and go slow. It isn't a beginner's hike however.
Fun fact: This crossed off every NC state park for me and have finally...
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There are really two parts to this review, that is why I only gave 4 stars. 1st, the park itself is amazing and I'd rank it number 2 in our list of parks so far, great restrooms, trails, beauty, places to go in the area. All this is off the chain, but for RV camping, not so good. 1st the camp staff. Spoke with folks before booking and they told us they had water hookups. I'll cut them some slack if maybe I should have pressed about what kind of water hookup, but then when we got there, another opportunity that they could have told us, you don't have water on each site! Would have been nice to know that after the fact we got pulled in and almost ready to unhook and noticed we didn't have water. Then, there was no place to dump our grey water or our cassette toilet. This alone will keep us from going back there. If you are a RV camper, be aware of this. I recommend getting water before you get there and think about not using your RV toilet unless you want to carry yours back with you. I would have emptied mine in the bathroom, but was worried that if toilet was backed up it would create a mess for others, so we took it back home with us. Again, we have never done this since RV camping. Again, this is a total shame because the park itself is breath taking. For my song of choice, I'd have to pick..."Heading South" an instrumental from my album,...
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Racial profiling and misconduct in a public state park parking lot. A ranger falsely accused us before we were even parked, then arrested our calm, unarmed mother for “trespassing” in a public area, after saying we were free to go. She was peacefully recording our vehicle, which is her right as a U.S. citizen.
This happened in front of children. A bystander watching said, “That ranger is treating that lady like an animal.” One of the children overheard them say they were going to put my mom “in a cage.” My mother responded: “I’m not an animal to be put in a cage.” and it’s all caught on video. Another mother came to support and comfort us as witnesses stood in shock.
The ranger refused to call a supervisor as it escalated on the rangers side, touched our vehicle without permission, and treated our family like we didn’t belong, as if we were illegal or less than. We are citizens of this country, and we know our rights.
This will be handled, not with fear or silence, but through the amazing U.S. justice system. Because when you wear the uniform, you don’t stand above the law, you are supposed to uphold it. We stand for what’s right, and we stand for the Constitution.
Let this be a lesson to the State Park: you don’t mess with our amendment rights. You don’t intimidate families. And you don’t cage citizens for using their voice. We...
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