Hanging Rock Waterfalls

Sunday morning we hiked to the waterfalls. First, we hiked the Indian Creek Trail to Hidden Falls and Window Falls.

Then back to the visitor center to hike to Upper Cascade Falls.

After this, we drove out of the park to visit the Lower Cascade Falls and took a dip the basin to cool off. Then back to the park to break down the campsite.After Hanging Rock, we headed to Pilot Mountain for more hiking. We parked at the visitor center and hiked up the Grindstone Trail to the parking lot at the summit. We stopped at the Little Pinnacle Overlook to take pictures of Pilot Mountain, then hiked the Jameokee Trail around the Big Pinnacle and took the Ledge Springs Trail back to the Grindstone Trail and back to the visitor center. It rained yet again on the way down, but it was a light rain so didn't get too wet. Then we stopped for dinner outside the park and headed back to Raleigh.

Camping at Hanging Rock

This weekend, we went camping at Hanging Rock. We got to the park at about 9 in the morning on Saturday, and it was already getting hot. We first hiked up the Hanging Rock trail to Hanging Rock and stopped for a while to enjoy the view.

It was a little too hazy to see all the way to Winston-Salem, but the views were great nonetheless. After that, we hiked down and followed the Wolf Rock Trail and Cook's Wall Trail to the end, then headed back and took the Magnolia Springs Trail to Moore's Wall Loop Trail.

At this point it started to rain - and it was a downpour! But the rain didn't last, and as we were hiking up to Moore's Wall, the sun came back out.

On top of Moore's Wall, we stopped again to dry off and enjoy the lovely breeze.

After a while, we hiked back down and set up camp. Just before sunset, we hiked back to Moore's Wall and tried to watch the sunset.

It was too cloudy to see the sunset, but the views of the growing darkness over the land below was fantastic. Then back to camp and time for bed.

Beach and Blast 2011

We went to the beach for Independence Day. We arrived early at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area to enjoy the beach. The water was 74 °F and quite refreshing. We tried to hike along the Basin Trail, but after only ten or so feet in, we were swarmed by mosquitoes and so gave up on hiking.

Instead, when the sun got too hot, we went to the NC Aquarium and enjoyed some air conditioning while looking at the fish and other marine life.

After the aquarium, we got lunch and went back to the beach and swam before packing up and heading to the river front in Wilmington. We had dinner and drinks along the river then watched the fireworks over the USS North Carolina.

Peaks of Otter Hike

Yesterday, we went to Peaks of Otter. It was hot, humid, and lots of bugs and no breeze to blow them away, but a fun day nonetheless. First, we hiked up Sharp Top Trail, only about 1.5 miles, but almost 1500-foot elevation gain.

We had lunch in the shelter on top of the mountain and enjoyed the great view then headed down and walked by the lake to Flat Top Mountain.

This trail was about 2 miles to the top of Flat Top with another 1500-foot elevation gain! We had a great view up on this mountain too.

Then, we headed down and had dinner at the Peaks of Otter Lounge before heading back.