Stone Mountain State Park, North Carolina - Part 2

                                  Saturday 5/3/2014

We left the Blue Ridge Parkway via Hwy 18.

There are some steep grades going down, but all in all not too bad.

We cross the Eastern Continental Divide at 3060 feet.

A few views on the way down.

At about 1,700 feet we came to a small community of McGrady. We were looking for the road on the map that went to Stone Mountain. The map didn't give a road name or highway number, so we had to find someone in McGrady who could confirm the road we thought was the right road.

Once confirmed we were right, we turned back a mile to the road.

Longbottom Rd will take you to Stone Mountain, if you decide to do the same loop drive we did that day.

The drive on Longbottom Road was a very quiet and peaceful Drive with little to no traffic. True country driving. It looked like to us, that the hill ahead had been logged. I sure wouldn't want the hill behind my home logged. A good way to cause a landslide down on the house.

After a 15 minute drive we came to the back entrance into Stone Mountain State Park.

After driving in on a gravel road for about 3 miles we came to the lower parking lot, but we continued down the road looking for the park office to get a map of the park. Then we came to the upper parking lot. I told Joe we should stop and see what was there. After using the restroom we found this sign telling us the falls was not too far to walk to.

At about a mile we came to the top of the falls.

A few steps down to the top of the falls.

Railing with sign telling you to not cross the fence as stream is slippery at the top of the falls.

We walked down 72 stairs to a landing at just below the top of the falls.

View from platform looking down.

More stairs to the bottom of the falls. Joe decided to stay at the landing with Mallery. It was very warm and Mallery would have to be carried down and up the stairs. Joe also has been having problems with a foot. Because he has been not over working his foot, it has been getting better. Going down more stairs and back up, would only start the healing process all over again.

I took the stairs down to the bottom.

A family was at the bottom cooling off in the water.

I took this picture with a boy at the bottom of the falls so you could get a perspective of the height of the falls.

I counted the stairs as I climbed back up them. There are several landings and one with benches to stop for a breather.

After picking up Joe and Mallery at the first landing, we headed back up the top steps to the trail. Total stairs, 325 in all. You don't climb that many stairs when you are out of shape without getting a hip cramp that makes you jump off the potty the next day, and muscle and joint pain that wakes you through the night. 

We didn't get home that night until close to 7PM. Our total day drive was 111 miles. Oh and by the way, on the way out of the main entrance of the park we stopped at the park office. We were told we should have stopped at the lower parking lot. At that parking lot, there was a 1/2 mile hike to Stone Mountain. Since by the time we got back from the falls and park office, it was getting to late to go back to the lower parking lot. The picture below is a picture of Stone Mountain that I copied from the internet that we would have seen had we walked the trail from the lower parking lot.