Thanksgiving at the Eno

Thanksgiving morning, we took Alex for hike at Eno River State Park.  Although he's been here many times, this is the first time we remembered his passport, so stopped by the visitor center first to get it stamped.

Then we parked at the trailhead for Cox Mountain and started hiking down the trail.  Alex isn't a fan of the suspension bridge over the river, but he made it across.

At the trail split, we went left to begin climbing the small mountain.  The trail has now been almost completely re-routed.  The climb is much less steep as it takes a longer, switchbacking route up Cox Mountain.  Down the other side, the trail follows Eno downstream.

We could see Holden Mill across the river; the trail to it is currently closed due to damage from Hurricane Florence.  Continuing on, another trail reroute runs closer to the river until it reaches Fanny's Ford Trail.  We turned left here to follow the river around and then back to the suspension bridge.  Across, we followed the river upstream to Buckquarter Creek Trail and then Ridge Trail to a crossing of Buckquarter Creek.

The water level was high, but enough rock was exposed to get across with dry feet.  Turning on Shakori Trail, we followed Buckquarter Creek Trail further upstream.  The upper reaches of the creek were rather interesting.

Then we looped back around and got back on Buckquarter Creek Trail.  Following along the river, we saw a lot more people along this stretch of trail.

The cascades on the river were really raging.  From here, it was a short hike back to the car and then to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner.