Raven Rock

It’s always fun moving to a new area and exploring nearby sites. Last weekend we discovered a State Park just 30 minutes from us.
Raven Rock State Park is a beautiful area that borders the Cape Fear River. The park is named for a rock formation that juts out along the mountainside. According to the information center, the rocks span 1 mile along the length of the river and are 150 ft high. It’s a landmark of the “fall zone”, an area where the hard rocks of the foothills meet the soft rocks of the coastal plain. (No, I did not copy that. Those facts came right out of my head).

I know how much everyone loves hearing all the details of this park… so I’ll continue…

It’s scattered with trails. We chose the 2.6 mile trail. The narrow trail was just beautiful. My mother-in-law just sent me a new field guide… which of course we brought along (oh, you didn’t know we were field guide junkies?), we were able to identify some deadly poisonous mushrooms…. like the Fly Amanita and Destroying Angel. We couldn’t figure out the last one, but decided it was best not to eat it, just in case.
 

View from the outlook. I was excited to see a few fall colors from up here. We have mostly pine trees and I’ve  been really missing the yellow, orange, and red tones of Fall.

When we got to the river we had to trek down 100 steps….

and we found ourselves at the end of the trail. Thank you Shawn, for pointing it out to us. And just about breaking Kennedy’s neck.

We had a ton of fun climbing and exploring the rock formation.

Seriously, I had to zoom in this picture so you could see the joy on their faces.
  

Check out the roots of this tree!

Shawn and I with our red-head baby….

What fun… the kids ran around for a while, then it was time to hike back.  We’re definitely going back… we’ve got more trails to hike.