Calloway Peak — Local services in Banner Elk

One of my absolute favorite state parks I've ever visited! Wow what a treasure! The Park Rangers and state park team has done such a wonderful job. The bathroom facilities were spotless, the trails were very well maintained despite treacherous terrain, the signs were all up to date and trails well marked, the campsites are BEAUTIFUL (one even includes a pulley system setup for keeping food from bears), and the views were epic!

This is an example of how to maintain a park. I was fortunate enough to meet one of the Park Rangers named Luke. Another inspiring Ranger that clearly cares about what he does and takes pride in his job. When I ran into him he had just cleaned the bathrooms and locked up. He offered to let me in even though they were closed and they were literally spotless. He then told me some of the history about the park and was extremely informative. I sincerely appreciate this dedication to preserve our public lands and can't think of a more important job.

I did the profile trail to Calloway Peak. It took me 3hrs to reach the top taking my time and 1.5hrs to make it down hustling. Go well prepared if you plan to summit I took more water than I thought I needed but I used it all due to how steep it was. Also if you have ankle problems like me come prepared with high top boots and trekking poles the top half is steep and difficult.

Also the Eagle Scouts built a beautiful bench to take a break about halfway up profile trail at the first viewpoint of...

Very nice place to hike to. We took the Daniel Boone Scout Trail up to Callaway Peak, it took around 2 hours to reach it. We started at the parking lot off The Blue Ridge Parkway. (Boone Fork Parking Area) Make sure your in good shape as it is uphill pretty much the whole way (approx 4 miles from the parking lot one way)There were a lot of interesting things to see along the way, the most interesting was an airplane that crashed there in 1978, it is actually still up there (badly damaged of course) it is located close to the top of Calloway Peak. (Once you get to the first ladder, turn around and go back approx 100 feet or so and start looking to the left and you will see the airplane wreckage about 50 feet from the trail) It's very sad that someone lost their life in this crash, but it's very neat to see along your way. There is also a shelter up near the top called "High Balsam Shelter" it was supposedly built during WW2 time and is still there to check out on your way up the trail. Because you are climbing approx 2000 feet the temperature is considerably colder near the top, but it's definitely worth the trip. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a challenging and...

Beautiful trails. We took the profile trail to Calloway Peak since the other trails were closed. It was a long hike there and back, but worth it. We left the parking lot sometime after 2 pm and got back just before 7 pm. My 8 and 10 year old kids made it the entire way up to the peak (with numerous snack breaks). My kids are not experienced hikers, nor am I, but we are extremely active. You know your kids limits. I would have loved to camp there, but we didn't plan for it at the time. There are many trail and camping options that we will explore if we...