Table Rock Summit Trailhead — Attraction in Pickens

This hike will kick you in your teeth but the payoff is well worth it.

Let's just say that I assumed that it would be like Looking Glass Rock... which is a 5 hour round trip hike. Well I was wrong. This is a non nonsense strenuous hike, exacerbated by having to climb over rocks for second half of the hike. By comparison Looking Glass Rock (LGR) is a bunch of merciful switchbacks that while strenuous, I would rate easily 50% less difficult. It is not the size and the quantity of the climb as it is that it is just long. Most of the trip there are no creeks, no brooks, couple few places you get tiny pools of rain water and where moss is leeching off into the rock. This is a hike where you DEFINITELY need to bring more water with you.

We had 4 bottles for me, 2 bottles per person for rest of family and dog so 12 in total. My family members drank theirs by time we got to the top and wasted half a bottle wetting the dog. I used 1 bottle going up knowing I had 3 to come back down. Until I let them drink. Imagine coming down the entire mountain with not a drop of water. I barely made it down weak at my knees, definitely on brink of heat exhaustion. I only drank 1 bottle for entire 7.8 mile hike. Boy was I livid. Lesson learned... never share your water.

Plan for a 9 hour hike if you are a normal person and not a speedy mountain goat. Granted in my case I have permanent knee injury and walk with a brace so I am slower. Rest of my family got back 1 hour sooner. I walk at my own pace. Ironically they were more beat than I was, having drank my water leaving me...

I took the 11-mile loop counter-clockwise starting at the trail head then heading up to Table Rock Trail to the summit. After a few minutes at the top (haze was bad from the Canadian wildfires blowing south) I headed back down and then took the Ridge Trail to Pinnacle Peak. From there I scooted downhill (and I mean downhill) on the Pinnacle Peak Trail with a side peel to Mill Creek Falls. Back to the trailhead in about 5 hours. If you do both trails, I recommend you hike the counter-clockwise way I did, as the hike from Table Rock Trail up the Ridge Trail to Pinnacle Peak was a lot easier than hiking up the trail from the trailhead to Pinnacle Peak first. The trailhead has restrooms available, and parking was plentiful, but that was at 7AM. By the time I left the park at 12:30PM, the parking lot was packed, and the beach area was swarming with people cooling off on the hot day. Cars were lined up down the road coming up to the entry gate, so again, arrive early to get a jump on the crowds. You can pay your $6 entry fee using the self-pay envelopes provided at the entry gate. Register how many hikers are in your group at the trailhead. Great trail, but you will get a workout as there is a lot of climbing up and up and up, as others have noted. Great view at Table Rock and also at Bald Knob and...

Very nice park. You can catch some fish there. You can swim and take your kayaks out into the lake. The restrooms are very clean and well maintained and they are HEATED!!! You can also go on 3 different well maintained trails. You have to write your name down in the office before you go on the trails. Each trail has a different difficulty measurement. They all end at great view points. You can also take your kids out into the water falls and small pockets of mountain water, they are fun to swim in. I see people taking their dogs on the trails all the time. There is plenty of parking and grill spots. Pictures of views and men's restroom. Ladies in the group said their restroom was...