HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM, MAY! And yes, she was born on Friday the 13th. 😊And I only had to call her twice to get ahold of her. 😊 She tells me she had a wonderful birthday, with accolades from quite a few people, and a few unexpected gifts.
While we were waiting for the weather to clear up, Blaine took a long walk around the campground.
Views of the nearby lake
Today took us to the top of Kings Pinnacle with an elevation of 1,705’ – so named because the rocks at the top look like the top of a king’s crown. (And no, you can’t see that from this picture.) It was labeled as strenuous, but we didn’t think it was. However, it wasn’t easy either, due to the vertical ascent. Still, it was a wide, flat trail with few roots or rocks most of the way. The most actual climbing we did was after we left the “official” trail.
Kings Pinnacle
We’re going all the way up there????
Personally, I’d rather climb rocks than walk uphill. But that’s just oddball me.
But first, we stopped at the Crowder’s Mountain Visitor Center, across the border in North Carolina. The third Park in the area (Kings Mountain SP in SC, Kings Mountain Military Park, SC and Crowders Mountain, NC). There’s actually a 16-mile loop trail that will take you through all three. We didn’t do that.
Anyway, back to the Visitor Center.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen berries on an evergreen.
This was a giant bush covered in them. Pretty!
We were greeted by this display when we walked in the door.
Taxidermists are pretty amazing!
Never seen a beaver this close up before!
Nor a bear. Thank Goodness! : )
It’s impossible to take a good picture of bears under glass.
I liked this quote by John Muir. So true!
Then off we went!
Most of the time the trail looked like this
Then we came upon a few bumps
And then a lot of bumps
Then it started smoothing out again
Look! The infamous Carolina Red Dirt!
Just before we got to the death-defying-rock-climbing part, we met a group of 4 from Alliance, Ohio! That’s our old ‘neighbors’! I always find it funny when we meet random people from our hometown area on the trail – to have lives intersect at that place and at that time hailing from the same general area. 😊
Oops! Here we go again! : )
Just take a look at this view!
This is the ‘crown’ view.
See the three rock formations sticking up? Like the top of a crown?
Lunch View!
We had the place to ourselves up until just before we finished lunch, then it started getting really crowded! And crowded means noisy. We were glad for the solitude, but it was also fun listening to and watching people and their dogs. A bit of both worlds before we went exploring again.
It was fun as always, but sometimes the trail was a bit dubious as we were pretty close to the edge at times. Technically it was a path people have worn down over time. Remember, where the actual trail ended?
We were rewarded with more terrific views, including the Visitor Center way off in the distance to add some perspective. We tried to find the Kings Mountain Military Park with its tall white monuments, but never did. They were out there somewhere. I think they were hidden by all the trees.
This is a former airplane beacon that was taken out of service about 60 years ago.
The end of the line
There’s the Visitor Center
This is our view of it without the zoom. Can you spot it?
Here it is from the end of our hike
Then it was time to head back. We still had some more exploring to do on the other side of the Pinnacle.
He’s trying to take a picture of the Pinnacle from the front side – at my suggestion. : )
This is what he was able to get
Not bad!
The other side
There were vultures soaring here, really close to us, but we weren’t able to capture one on camera.
They would appear and disappear too quickly.
That’s it for today. 5 miles round-trip of semi-vertical terrain is enough.
We felt we’d earned dinner out, so when we got to the town of Kings Mountain, we brought out TripAdvisor for help. I located the Italian Garden. Not so great in the ambiance department, but that was good because we were hardly dressed for anything better. The food was really good and the price was incomparable! We had large portions of lasagna, ravioli, salad, bread AND DRINKS for a whopping $7.99 each! There was only one negative – neither of us ordered our salad with dressing on the side (which I always do). The lettuce was swimming. I couldn’t eat all mine. Blaine managed, but still had a large pool of red on the bottom of his plate. It was good. Just waaaaay too much!
Home to rest. We have another day of walking – somewhere, we’re not sure where – tomorrow.