We set out yesterday afternoon for a nice family day at Hickory Run State Park. We had been there a few weeks early to swim at the beach. It was nice, but not what I would call a ‘great’ place. This time however, we were leaving our bathing suits at home and were going on a hike.
Although there are many trails to hike on, we had but one destination in mind — the waterfall. We parked at the Ranger’s station, grabbed a map, and headed into the woods.
It was a nice, but challenging hike. There were lots of tree roots and rocks to deal with (to say nothing of the mud) but Jack was great at keeping pace. In fact, quite a few times he was well ahead of us on the trail. We not only made it to the waterfall, but walked probably a good mile on the trail after that. Yeah, about that.
The trail that the waterfall is on was listed online as being 1 mile long that loops around itself. The trail sounded perfect for a quick afternoon out so that’s why we picked that trail. The only complaint I could find was that the trails are not clearly marked.
We now have to agree with that assessment.
After walking for nearly 2 hours we finally stopped and looked at the map. Apparently the trail we were on was not the trail we wanted to be on, Instead of the nice 1 mile trail to the waterfall, we ended up on the most difficult 13 mile trail that they had. Without further ado we turned around and walked about 45 minutes back to where we came from. Thankfully it was a lot easier and quicker to get back to the trail head since we didn’t have to climb some 800ft in elevation.
All in all it was a great afternoon out in the fresh air. Most of the trail — at least the parks we walked before turning around — you walked along the water. It was quite relaxing hearing the sound of the water nearby, even though it made the air around you very humid under the tree canopy.
Would we every go back? Absolutely! However, we will look for the shorter trail instead.
Click to see the galary of pictures from our walk
