How We Found It: The Carolina Mountains Land Conservancy website offers a lot of good information on this hike (see the link under Map).

Date and Distance Hiked: 3/4/12, 5.5 miles

Find the Trailhead: On 74A past Bat Cave…and by having faith that it exists. Wind past Lake Lure through Chimney Rock, through Bat Cave and up a ways until you see this chimney standing alone on the right side of the road. This is the parking area.

Here’s a map:

Map: This trail system has been greatly improved recently. Print a map from the the CMLC website.

Bathroom Situation: Nope.

Fees (Where/How Much): Free.

Our Route: On the map downloaded from the link above, we trucked up the aqua-colored dotted line, out to the rock outcropping on the orange spur and backtracked down the hill, exploring some spurs with in and backs along the way. Weather and daylight prevented us from doing the larger loop.

Hike Highlights:
Even though the sun was shining, a light snow fell for most of the hike. This hike offers everything from history (old logging cabins and the remnants of a very old road) to thick rhododendrons to a bubbling creek to a good, steady elevation gain.

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