Crowders Mtn and Gorges State Park
Although we had this trip planned for months, it was 4pm, before we started packing. C was looking forward to trying out the new mountain pie maker his mom bought for us, and of course we left it behind, only realizing after we had been driving for an hour. We left on Monday night and stayed at a hotel in Gastonia. Before we checked in, we ate at Booja Korean Wings Cafe. We had chicken wings and stir fried spicy squid. The highlight were the servers; two very kind, motherly, and slightly chaotic women. They made sure we were well hydrated, ate our radishes, and kept asking if we wanted a takeout box (no, we’re hungry and planning to eat all of this food).
The next morning, we ate breakfast at Panera Bread. We also went to Walmart to buy an inferior mountain pie maker. Unfortunately, C discovered that he didn’t have his credit card with him, realizing he left it at the restaurant last night. According to the website, the restaurant wasn’t supposed to open until noon, so we decided to go to Crowders Mountain State Park first and then go back to retrieve his card. We hiked a ~6 mile loop, ascending on Rocktop trail and descending on Crowders trail. The weather was clear with beautiful views, and it wasn’t crowded on a Tuesday morning. We also caught a hint of color with the changing leaves. The trail itself is very wide, easy to navigate with some interesting boulders on the way up. We didn’t plan a lunch, so we had candy (nerds gummies, lemon heads), nuts and jerky.
After the hike, we went back to the restaurant… and they were closed! We decided to continue on our trip, hoping they would still have his card on our way back home. Off we went to Gorges State Park. We arrived early evening, after the visitor’s center had closed. We pulled into our campsite (#14), set up the tent, and made pasta for dinner. One of the park rangers came by and asked if we had a permit. Luckily, he had my name recorded, gave me a hang tag for the car, and shared a brief overview of the park rules (and also that the camp hosts were new and probably didn’t know anything… “just call 911 if anything happens.”) The campgrounds are only a year old, and gorgeous. The camp site had soft, clean gravel and the bath house was incredible! If it was up to me, I would call the park “Gorges (gorgeous) bathrooms state park.” Really, that’s how amazing they were.
On Wednesday morning, we went to the visitor’s center to get a map of the park. There did not seem to be many marked hiking trails on the western side of the park. The main feature was a hike to Rainbow Falls, which ventured into the adjacent Pisgah National Forest. I suppose these boundaries are somewhat arbitrary. On our hike, there was an unmarked side trail that brought us to Stairway Falls. It was an interesting descent, with peaceful views. We hiked back up, and went to Rainbow Falls and Turtleback Falls, which were more popular. On the hike back, we made a turtle friend and poked mushrooms. I even squeezed my favorite mushrooms, (common) puffballs! For late lunch at our campsite, C made a campfire, and we had mountain pies filled with pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni. They were toasty and delicious. Closer to dinnertime, we were hoping to get ice cream in town. When we drove to the location, we also found that they were closed! We were not having much luck with the restaurants on our trip. There was a restaurant nearby, called Slab Town Pizza, so we decided to eat there. C had a small buffalo chicken pizza, and I enjoyed waffle fries and a salad. We made it back to our campsite before the gates closed, did some reading, and went to bed.
Thursday we started on our drive back home. We ate breakfast at Chik-fil-A, spent time at Starbucks, then went to Booja when they opened at noon. Luckily, they had his card and we continued on our way home. A fulfilling trip with some bumps along the way.