Medoc Mountain State Park — Attraction in Whitakers

First of all, Ranger Sandra Fambrough. Wow, what a doll. She made it her mission to make sure that we had the best experience possible. Always one step ahead of what we needed. We spent quite a while talking, she gave us star gazing tips, and made sure we had all the firewood we needed. We have met quite a few Rangers but she takes the cake. Hopefully, she is well appreciated, compensated and respected among her peers. She is a jewel and a compliment to the State Park Service. Thank you for treating us like your neighbor, loving what you do and sharing it with us.

The park was well kept, all the campers seemed very happy. Showers in the group campground where we stayed were in perfect working order and clean (and heated!). The trails were very easy for us. Our one negative note was the cemetery was not marked on the map as a point of interest and maybe a little information on the family that was buried there would have been cool. The tree identification section was not marked either. Maybe a little cleaner map to trail coordination. Sometimes the trails were not blazed correctly. A lot of the symbols were incorrect and the colors/shapes were used for reused multiple trails. At one spot, we were following red circle, turned around and saw white triangle AND yellow circle all on the same tree, and this was not the portion that overlapped with the bike trails. Also those symbols were not present anywhere on the map so while we weren't confused as to where we were, we were confused as to what the misleading blazes and signage meant.

All of the group camp sites surround a field but are still pretty snugly in the woods. Site #3 & #4 are your best bet for parking closest to your site. Sites #1 & #2 will require toting your gear a little farther.

Overall, great little spot to...

There is a separate listing for the park but ok...

2-18-23

Enjoyed the visitor center. We come to parks to hike but decided to check out the center first. We held the corn snake Charlie and learned about the area, its wildlife, and its habitat. I enjoyed learning about the geological stuff too. Bathrooms here as well as stuff for sale, maps, brochures, stickers for passports, etc.

So the hiking. We hiked every hiking trail in the park (always do) and it was almost 11 miles per Strava. From the visitor center, we started on the Bear Swamp Trail (actually a biking trail) and connected to the Dam Site Loop, the Summit Loop, the Fishing Creek Loop, the Stream Trail Loop, the Campground Loop, and then the Bluff Loop. (Reverse order minus the Summit Loop to get back)

The Summit Loop has the most climb and is listed as moderate. Most of the trails are the same with flat, wide, and well-formed terrain. However, we found the Bluff Loop our favorite trail. It had excellent views of the creek from different levels (hence the name), quite a bit of up and down, unevenness, etc. Listed as easy to moderate. The Campground Loop was our next favorite.

Recommend getting a map whether printed off the park site or at the visitor center. Even with maps, folks were stopped along the way trying to make sense of things. One group asked us some questions despite having a map themselves.

Overall the hiking is ordinary with occasional decent views. One of the better visitor centers for NC State Parks that I...

If I could go 4.5 stars here, I would. This is a relatively small state park, though it's still big enough to have some fun. I took the bear creek/summit loop trail after work and took my camera. This is the 10th of the state parks that I have been to, and so far it's the least exciting. No, it's not really a mountain. Supposedly, it used be an extremely long time ago, and you can see evidence every once in a while of that if you look hard enough.

When I went, I was the only person on the trail. It was overcast and had been raining for days. The river level was pretty high and the trail was flooded in a couple of spots. I just went off the path to get around those spots, so it wasn't a huge deal. Lots of poison ivy, though. It was a peaceful, almost 5 mile loop on a relatively flat trail. There are some bike trails here that seem like they could be awesome but I can't speak to those as I just hiked.

The stars of my hike were 100% the mushrooms! I don't usually geek out over mushrooms, but they were everywhere. I also saw a ton of butterflies and a really cool buck(briefly). He ran away while yelling at me. Haha. Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot of him. I was being too loud.

Worth the trip but I can't see spending more than half the day here. I'll be interested in checking it out again in the fall but the bugs here in late July...