Singletary & Jones Lakes

Sunday morning, we had breakfast and headed to Singletary Lake State Park.  Starting off on the CCC Loop Trail, we headed to the pier.

I went out on the pier for some nice morning views of the lake.

Continuing on the trail, interpretive signs described various theories for the formation of Carolina bays.  Meteor showers, underground springs, limestone sinkholes, wind action and even spawning fish have been proposed, though no one theory can fully explain them.  The lower loop portion ended by the lake drain.

Here, we went north on got on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail as it followed a sandy road.

The sand along the road was yellow in color, but just off the trail, the sand was very white, almost looked like snow.

MST continued beyond the park as Singletary Lake Trail in Bladen Lakes State Forest.

We hiked as far as NC-53 then turned around.  Back in the park, we tried to finish up the CCC loop, but it was flooded where it crossed the lake drain.

So we just hiked back to the car.

From here, we headed back to Jones Lake State Park for another hike.  We were hoping to hike the entire way around Bay Trail, but it was closed north of the visitor center.  So we hiked the other way on Bay Trail.

Just past the split for Salters Lake, Bay Trail was closed so we took the Service Road out to NC-242 and walked the road back.  Hike 29 for #MST40Hike was from Jones Lake to Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest.

So we turned on Sweet Home Church Road to hike out to the entrance to the forest and then back to Jones Lake.  There's an off-road trail between the two, but its currently closed due to an out bridge.

We went into Elizabethton for dinner again and made it back to camp before sunset.

We headed out to the pier and boathouse for a wonderful sunset view over the lake.

The sky really lit up in gorgeous fiery colors and reflected brilliantly against the lake.

Once darkness set in, it was another chilly night and we built a nice campfire to stay warm.