Hanging Rock Hike

This should be a great time of the year to explore this beautiful park as the temperatures are generally moderate and the foliage is still dormant, so visibility of the terrain and landscape is much greater.

We will meet at the visitor center at 1 o’clock where we’ll check out the facilities, meet, greet, and pray. We will then hike the Hanging Rock Trail which is 3.6 miles round-trip. For those who have not been there recently, they have removed the steps, widened the trail and rerouted the approach to the peak. This facilitates access by emergency vehicles and opens the trail up to a broader population. Actually, I think it would now be possible to slowly maneuver, a ‘76 Fleetwood essentially to the top :). Only at that point does the surface become a bit rocky and rooty as the trail fans out to various overlook areas. Therefore, this portion of our hike is rated as moderate, and I recently hiked from the visitor center and back in just over an hour. However, we would obviously want to hang out at the pinnacle so I would imagine we would be back to the visitor center/parking area around 3ish.

We can then choose a picnic table to serve as a 'base camp" where some folks may wish to hang out and explore from there, while others may wish to continue hiking perhaps to Wolf Rock or Cooks Wall. Then, around 5pm, we can all meet back at the picnic table and based upon whatever we have decided a day or so prior to the hike, we will either cook out there or have dinner on the way home perhaps in downtown King at either the Dalton or the Mercantile Chophouse restaurant.

Hanging Rock State Park: Home | NC State Parks

NOTE: Our goal is fellowship, exercise, and recreation, therefore we generally hike as a loose group. That said, we are all adults and are free to walk at our own pace. Therefore, we don't expect the majority of other hikers to significantly alter their pace either faster or slower to accommodate our pace.