Rocky Face Mountain

 October 18, 2020

It is fall in NC and apparently that means many people head to the mountains to check out the leaves.  We can't take a chance of getting caught in traffic because some members of our family would not tolerate that! So we found a park an hour and fifteen minutes away in Alexander County near Hiddenite, NC. We arrived around 10:45 am and there was plenty of parking. Right away we saw people rock climbing and were impressed! This is the site of a quarry that was in operation from 1922 to the 1940s, and was made into a park in 2012. There are several trails available, plus a paved walking path and children's natural play area. Things were clean and the trails were very well marked.

We set out on the Buzzard Loop, which is mostly a rock staircase to get to the top of the 100 ft tall rock initial rock face. There is fencing so you can't get too close to the edge and we enjoyed seeing all the places where rock climbers could clip in their ropes.

Next we started on the Hollow Rock Trail. This is a 2.5 mile moderate to strenuous loop. We did end up climbing about 600 feet to the summit area so we definitely agree about the strenuous part. The trail was nice and shady although there were plenty of roots and rocks to look out for. There were several lookout spots where you could look toward the Blue Ridge Mountains and Brushy Mountains. It was really cool to be walking on these huge rock faces and we all enjoyed the scenery. The way back down was good too because we knew we were done climbing in elevation!

After a total of 3.7 miles we were back to the parking area and ready to eat our lunch. The kids also collected a bunch of acorns, rocks, and leaves that they tried to create a bartering system with so along with climbing on the rocks, they were busy. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed our time at Rocky Face Park!