Hiking: Day Trips

[YJJPWrangler]

Looking to take the wife on a day trip hike. So far we have done South Mountain and the Gorge. She loves waterfalls etc so if its there thats a plus. I thought about taking her to ButterNut Falls but wanted to check here to see if there were better options. Lets say 2hr drive from Charlotte.

 

[tjfreddy]

Check out Stone Mountain State park in Roaring Gap NC.
It is not that strenuous of a hike, some of the trails are gravel. The view from the top is nice though.

 

[DSM Turbos]

Rainbow Falls / Turtle Back falls is a good one and bad

Then there are tons of them also around @Jody Treadway world.

 

[ponykilr]

Pilot Mountain

 

[rcalexander105]

Crowders Mountain is right there in y'alls neck of the woods.

Hanging Rock has always been a go-to of ours.

 

[RatLabGuy]

Linville Gorge has enough trails to be multiple day trips. Hawksbill is among my favorite. Unsure if you can get there in 2 hr from Charlotte though.

 

[Kickdeez]

Caesar's Head State Park in SC has some good hiking trails, including some waterfalls.

Pisgah also has some good hiking trails. The wife and I did John's Rock trail when she was 4 months pregnant. If my memory serves me right, it was about a 5 miler, moderate difficulty. Follows a river for a while, multiple bridge crossings, great view at the top on John's Rock.

 

[simpleman01]

Great suggestions above. Dupont State Forest has lots of waterfalls. A few more can be found at Hiking Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina. I love this website! You can search by difficulty, waterfalls, views, length, etc. Kind of hard to navigate at first. Click on NC under the State Hike Maps banner at the top. Unfortunately SC doesn't seem to be included yet. If you feel like venturing further out my personal favorite (ironically not on hikingupward site) is the Art Loeb trail in the Black Balsam Knob area. Spectacular views but no water.

 

[jeepinmatt]

Linville Gorge, Dupont State Forest, and Grayson Highlands should keep you busy for a while.

 

[YJJPWrangler]

yup, all great suggestions. I've done John Rock/Butternut on my winter trip and it was great. Probably will stay away from Linville for a while until the wife forgets about all the "fun" she had on our overnight. We had planned to go to Caesars State Park in SC but we got there on a weekend when the parks had just reopened from Covid and you couldn't physically get in.

we call Crowder's Mtn, "crowded mtn" about the only reason I go there is to go bouldering. Ill take a look at everyone's suggestions and make a plan, either way should be a lot of fun.

Thanks!

 

[Lucas Brown]

It's been a while since I go hiking, I don't have anything to recommend but you guys have fun.

 

[jeepinmatt]

we call Crowder's Mtn, "crowded mtn"

No joke. I'd rather drive to the real mountains than deal with all the people at Crowded Mountain.

 

[DSM Turbos]

Facebook Groups this is a pretty decent group on facespace also for waterfalls

 

[shawn]

Facebook Groups this is a pretty decent group on facespace also for waterfalls

Don't go chasing waterfalls.

 

[DSM Turbos]

Don't go chasing waterfalls.

Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to...

 

[GONOVRIT]

Wife and I hiked up and around Crowders towers and back to the car in just under an hr one day last wk since it was too wet to MTB. It wasn’t crowded at all at 8am

There are lots of hikes you can get to in the Wilson creek/grandfather district of Pisgah in 2hrs from Charlotte. Plenty of waterfalls and peaks/look outs.