North Carolina State Parks Amazing Adventure Challenge

"I hope this is the right place for this since this will be mostly an on road adventure. We will drive on the beach for sure and we plan to drive a few of the easier trails when we are in the mountains so I guess it's actually a little of both.

What started this ongoing trip is the North Carolina state parks system has a passport program. They give out a small booklet resembling a passport it has some general information about the park system and a page for each park in there system. On those pages there is a space for a stamp. You visit the office at each park to get a stamp.

Well they give out small prizes for each multiple of 10 parks that you visit and a season pass if you can visit all 41 parks in a year. My wife and I love visiting our state parks and this sounded like a fun challenge so we decided to try and visit all 41 parks. We plan to picnic, hike, fish, whatever at each park. We don't want to just stop in at the office and get a stamp.

We started our adventure on 2/27/19 with a visit to our "home" park, Raven Rock state park. It was a bit cloudy with rain threatening but we managed a hike down to the overlook without getting wet.

Stay tuned for more park visits!!

 

For this update we visit Jordan Lake state recreation area. Specifically the dam and spillway area. They were releasing a ton of water due to all the rain we've had recently. The Heron and seagulls were fighting over the fish by the spillway. Got a couple of miles on hiking in and of course got our passport stamped. There were some daffodils blooming in front of the visitors center. That's a sure sign that Spring is around the corner.

 

A 2 for 1 post this time. We made a trip out to the Northeastern corner of North Carolina to Visit Merchants Millpond and Dismal Swamp. It was grey and overcast all day but the rain mostly stayed away with only a couple of brief showers during the day.

First off Merchant's Millpond. This park is situated around a large swampy pond that was dammed for a mill. We started off the day with bacon and eggs cooked on the camp stove. Then we hiked around the cypress point and Coleman trails. We got about 2.5 miles of hiking in before heading down the road.




We then headed over to US17 close to the Virginia border. The entrance to Dismal Swamp park is located besides the visitor welcome center on 17. It is the only welcome center accessible by land and water, since it is located on the Dismal swamp canal, which is part on the intercoastal waterway (ICW). To enter the park you have to cross a bridge over the canal. There is a great broadwalk through the swamp as well as many other trails. We got lucky and ate our lunch at one of the picnic table in the visitor center that was covered while one of the quick rain showers blew through.

 

For this update we visited Carvers creek state park near Fayetteville NC. This is the 5th park we visited in our quest and it's the first time we saw the sun. It's been a raining wet Winter in NC this year.

The park is based on lands that were donated by James Stillman Rockefeller. Yes those Rockefellers. He used the farm as a Winter retreat and get away. There was beautiful pond on the property until hurricane Matthew came through a few years ago and ruptured the dam. It is still a nice place to visit even with the now empty lake. We got lucky enough to see a red headed woodpecker in the trees while we were hiking.

 

Bringing this thread up to date. We visited Cliffs of the Neuse state park yesterday. It was another cloudy, grey, chilly day but we managed a picnic and a short hike but we had to cut that short due to many of the trails being flooded. In the second picture below you can see how far the river is backed up into the trees.

 

Looks like you had a great time on your trip!

 

Thanks for the reply. Yep having fun with this so far. Lots more parks to visit in NC.

 

I like interactive stuff myself and I'm 50 . If you go to the visitor center ask about Junior ranger programs too. I saw something about it in one of the visitor centers we've been to. They had some nice patches as rewards. I was kinda jealous.

 

A double park update this time. We visited Goose Creek State park on Monday. It's on the Pamlico river just East of Washington NC. We've been here a few times in the past and I we always seem to spot wild life here. On this trip 2 deer walked across the road in front of us.


On Wednesday we visited Weymouth Woods near Southern Pines. Took the wife's Subaru this time instead of the truck, since we were going out for dinner and we decided to get in a park visit and a quick hike on the way.


For those of you keeping count we are up to 9 parks visited so far. 1 more and we get the first rewards level.

 

Visited Medoc Mountain State park yesterday. This makes 10 state parks visited so far. My wife is happy because we are half way to free socks. We even took some time to throw a line in the creek. The fish were not biting but the mosquitos were. Welcome Spring in NC.

 

Visited Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area today. It is located off of I-85 in Hillsborough. It sit really close to the interstate so we worried that it would be too noisy but after we walked for awhile the traffic noise fell away. We walked the mountain loop trail and found it really enjoyable. It's our favorite trail we we've hiked so far. It has a nice mix of scenery, in sections it feels like you are up in the mountains, then you walk by the Eno river for a while and then you are in a more wooded section. Overall a great way to spend an afternoon.

I have to be honest. I was hoping was hoping my wife would fall in the mud when she was walking across that log bridge but she made it across safely.