Charlotte, NC: Crowder's Mountain

My friend Rene's daughter, Heather, came down south for a little visit, to thaw out and warm up, so I drove up to Charlotte to spend a day with her. This was her first day of sunshine & we wanted to spend it outdoors.
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We took a 50 minute drive to King's Mountain, NC, to visit Crowders Mountain State Park. Excellent decision. This has to be Charlotte's best kept secret.
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We took the 1.7 mile Pinnacle Trail on the ascent & the Turnback and Fern Trails on the descent, a lazy hike along the little creek. The Pinnacle is a little strenuous, but not too bad. It took us just over an hour to ascend and just under an hour to descend. I don't recommend the hike for children under 7 or any lazy, whiney children. Also, if you take the children, don't let them hit the top before you do -- they can fall off easily. You'll need to hold their hands. As a matter of fact, leave them at home, I'll feel a lot less nervous. The peak is dangerous, there are no fences or natural boundaries.

The trails were marked very well, very easy to stay on course.

Most of the trail is wide, cleared and clean.

Some parts are difficult and require climbing, such as that pictured above.

Below was our first view as we rounded the top.

We spent quite awhile here breathing it in.

You can see the moutains off in the distance and a few small towns clustered around - Bessemer City, Shelby, Kings Mountain, etc.

Keep walking across the pinnacle for a 360 view.

Below is the other part of Crowder's Mtn.

Below is the Charlotte Skyline. I expected a better view of the skyline, but this was as good as it got and it wasn't really foggy or hazy.

Heather sat out on this rock, much to my chagrin.
I know her mother will freak at this.
We wished we had brought a backpack with lunch, books & our Bible Study, that would be so awesome up here.

The tiny speck in the center of the next picture is the Visitor's Center from which we climbed up.

Watch out for random underwear hanging from limbs.

And, no, It wasn't mine!

If you go:

Take a bottle of water per person. Take a backpack with some stuff to do while you're up there. No sense hiking all that way and not spending some time up there. We spent half an hour up there just walking and looking around.

Take flip flops to change into when you get back to the car.