Two-Heel Drive, a Hiking Blog

One-word summary of this outing: Wet. Sweat on the way up, rain on the way down. I finished soaked from the top of my Trailspace cap to the soles of my shiny new New Balance trail runners. Yes, I took rain gear; no, it did not keep me dry.

Hanging Rock, from the Hanging Rock Trail

Backstory on this one: Hanging Rock State Park is the best place to hike within 30 miles of my front door. I’d hiked almost all the trails except a stretch of Indian Creek Trail up to the Dan River in the far northern section of the park, where the Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club hiked a few weeks back. I got up Saturday morning in no mood for a long drive to the Blue Ridge, so I decided to follow in their footsteps, adding a quick jaunt up to Hanging Rock.

Hanging Rock has glorious views of the nearby terrain. The most sensible way to get there is to park at the visitor’s center and take the one-mile trail to the rock. It’s steep and rocky in the last quarter-mile; doable but not crazy-difficult. Getting there from Dan River via the Indian Creek Trail is another matter: five miles one way with nearly 1,400 feet of ascent, complicated by suffocating heat on the way up, the risk of a lightning strike at the top, and the likelihood of hiking back in a thunderstorm.

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The great thing about getting lost on the way here three weeks ago and having to turn back: returning when fall colors are going full-blast.

This is where your intrepid hiking blogger is forced to admit that he hasn’t done a fall-colors hike in a locale with actual fall colors since his college days at Giant City State Park in far southern Illinois, and he was very drunk at the time. The contrast in just three weeks is mind-boggling at first blush. Way back on the third of October we had a few trees doing a bit of orange and yellow, but green still ruled. By the 25th, the green was nearly gone, oranges, reds and yellows had taken over and leaves had fallen in enough volume to make the trail invisible for extended stretches.

About the hike: Moore’s Knob is the highest point in the park, with an old fire tower platform serving as an observation deck for, well, pretty much this whole section of North Carolina. The 360-degree panorama from the platform is the best in the region, by far. The standard 4.9-mile route to the Knob starts from the Hanging Rock Lake, takes a steep climb to the summit and a more relaxed downhill return leg. It’s a fine route (the climb is wicked, but the trail is built well with lots of stone steps) but it does draw a crowd, especially when the leaves are peaking.
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I had some exploring at Hanging Rock State Park in mind — the goal was to park at a remote trailhead and trek over to the Moore’s Wall Loop, which has an excellent view of Hanging Rock from the next hill over. Never got there; never came close. Well, I was within the park boundaries; except when I wasn’t.

I started out at the Tory’s Den trailhead, where my last hike here ended a couple weeks back, glanced at the big map on the signboard and figured the trail markers would do the rest. It was a glorious morning to be hiking, and glorious woods to be walking in: dashes of fall color, empty trails, nothing but breezes, bird songs and one noisy squirrel blasting his way from tree to tree.

Perfect conditions to send a hiker way, way in the wrong direction if he misses his left turn at Mile .3. I was three miles deep into the forest before it occurred to me to consult the map for my next turn. I walked on a bit more and thought this’d be a great time to try some GPS navigation for the first time. First thing I notice: I’m due southing when I want to be southeasting. Then I pan out on the view of my GPS track, compare it to my map and realize: crap, I’m totally on the Sauratown Loop Trail; if I stick to my original plan it’s a good five miles to the bottom of Moore’s Wall and another four miles after that, then four miles back to the car. Talk about a bliss kill.

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Funny what happens when you show up at a popular state park when it’s not a holiday weekend: no weddings, no crowds, only one pack of noisy Cub Scouts on a camp-out.

All of this (plus the weather forecast predicting rain all day) meant I had the waterfalls of Hanging Rock State Park mostly to myself. Nice gift from the good folks of North Carolina.

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There’s only one major exception to the gently undulating terrain near Winston-Salem: The Sauratown Mountains, a small range about 30 miles northwest of here. Centerpiece of these neighboring peaks is Hanging Rock State Park, so named because of large rock formations that, you guessed it, hang out over the terrain below.

This Google terrain map shows how these hills just sorta pop up:

View Sauratown Mountains in a larger map

Hanging Rock has two things I crave: interesting stone and multiple waterfalls. Last week a couple hikers from Georgia urged me to check it out. Sage advice.

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