Kings Mountain National Military
Park borders Kings Mountain
State Park. The National
Park preserves the historic part and the State Park provides land for
recreational use, but they each have history and recreation.
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| trails in the National and State Parks |
The focal point of the National Military Park
is the 1.5 mile Battlefield Trail (the orange trail on the map above), which we
hope to cover in an upcoming blog post. The National Military
Park Visitor
Center also connects to a
16-mile loop trail going through both parks called the Kings Mountain National
Recreation Trail (the purple trail on the map above). One day Bill hiked this
whole trail. Our trailer is within walking distance of this trail, so Bill
planned to make one big loop from our campsite with the goal to finish by 5pm
when the National Park closes. Mostly the trail meanders up and over hilly
terrain through the woods and passes some streams. A spur trail leads to the summit
of Browns Mountain that provides a view through
the trees.
Hikers visiting the park
often hike along part of this trail either from the Visitor Center to Browns
Mountain or to Lake Crawford, but rarely hike the entire 16 mile trail, so Bill
was breaking cobwebs and negotiating fallen trees and rickety bridges on the
less popular part of the trail.
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| Want to cross this bridge? |
Most of the areas needing
trail maintenance were in the State Park. Bill saw a dead rattlesnake along the
trail.
Interestingly, a few days
later, the Visitors Center got a call from some Browns Mountain
hikers who said they came upon a rattlesnake and wanted permission to kill it.
The answer was “No.”
Bill hiked the entire trail
plus two spur trails in plenty of time to make it back by closing time.
In the meantime, Barbara
checked out the Living History Farm at Kings Mountain
State Park. The Living
History Farm recreates a pre-Civil War farm with a collection of farm buildings
some moved here from other locations and some constructed by the park.
Then Barbara headed out from
there on a short trail, the Living History Farm Trail (the yellow trail on the
map above).
This wooded trail had the
greatest selection of mushrooms Barbara had ever seen.
While bending down to
photograph a mushroom, Barbara heard a “Grrrrrrr…” Not a comforting sound. She
looked up to see two large unfriendly-looking dogs that fortunately were
leashed to their owner. The scary dogs put her in the mood to terminate her
hike. Nevertheless she enjoyed discovering a multitude of mushrooms.
