Stone Mountain Hike to the Parkway

Saturday, Sandy had to work, so I headed out solo for a weekend of camping at Stone Mountain State Park.  I arrived just after 730 and parked at the backpack camping parking lot.  Since I was so close, I first headed over for a couple pictures at Widows Creek Falls.

Then I headed back and got on Widows Creek Trail/Mountains-to-Sea Trail.  The trail was steep at first to get above the waterfall then leveled off following the creek upstream.

There were three footbridges over the creek before the two trails split.  I first stayed on Widows Creek Trail to the backcountry campsites and found Upper Widows Creek Falls near the first site.

It's only about 12 feet high, but I thought it was really scenic.  The rock above the middle of the falls had a lone tree growing out of it.

I rested here for a bit then headed back to the split to follow MST up.  It was quite steep in places but leveled off in others.  In over four miles, I made it up to the parkway at Devils Garden Overlook.  I crossed the street and sat on the stone wall to eat lunch and enjoy the view from up here.

On the way back down, I made a detour on Sparta Trail, that split from the MST about a mile from the parkway.

The trail followed an old road bed for about 1/2 a mile then a gated paved road for another 1/2 mile to the parkway.  I'm not sure if it continued from there, but it was still a long hike back down so I turned around.

Back down at the car, I headed into Wilkesboro and had dinner at Two Boros Brewery.  The bartender Dylan was very nice and the pizza and beer were good.  After dinner, I returned to the park and set up camp.  After building a fire, Diana from a running group from Raleigh invited me over to their campsite a couple sites down to socialize with the group by the campfire.