How We Found It: One of Beth’s favorite haunts.
Date and Distance Hiked: We started this post on 4/1/12 but hike here frequently. 8.5 miles, with variations described below.
Good Seasons: Winter, spring (not too hot yet), fall (leaves!).
Find the Trailhead: In Stone Mountain State Park, Roaring Gap, NC. We start at the Lower Parking Lot.
Map: The “Park Map” at the above link is the same map you’ll find for free at the visitor center in the park.
Bathroom Situation: Upper Parking Lot has the nicest ones. Visitor center has a single. Lower Parking Lot also has facilities.
Fees (Where/How Much): Free. Donate at the visitor center if you’d like.
Our Route: We started out at the Lower Parking Lot –> Stone Mountain Loop (left and up the rock first) –> past the Hutchinson Homestead to the 2nd Wolf Rock trail entrance –> Wolf Rock Trail –> Black Jack Ridge Trail –> back on Stone Mountain Loop past the Hutchinson Homestead again to the Lower Parking Lot.
For 0.5 mi shorter and better views, after you go left on Wolf Rock Trail –> left on Cedar Rock Trail (When you reach Cedar Rock, watch for the faded blazes painted on rock itself. You’ll see them if you down look long enough.) –> back on the Stone Mountain Loop again, past the Hutchinson Homestead to the Lower Parking Lot.
Tips/Of Interest: You’ll be scaling a 600′ pluton that was formed by a lava bubble over 335 million years ago.
If you keep left from the Lower Parking Lot on Stone Mountain Loop Trail, it’s around 8/10 of a mile to the peak. It’s a workout, but don’t wimp out. The rest of this loop is gravy.
People do die here by going too far down the side of the rock or by playing at the top of the 200′ waterfall (don’t do that). Use caution and common sense.
There are other trails around this park than around Stone Mountain. To punish yourself, try [to find] Widow’s Creek Falls Trail. If you have time to add 2 miles to your trek, Middle and Lower Falls are worth seeing (not spectacular but cool anyway): head down the spur not far below Stone Mountain Falls, 1 mile in (with some good down) and 1 mile back (and up again).
For inside scoop and information on group hikes, follow the Facebook page “Stone Mountain NC Hiking.”
What Nobody Told Us before We Went: The newer “Upper Parking Lot” trailhead into Stone Mountain Loop has brought a lot of people to once-isolated portions of that trail. People wearing church clothes and flip flops and smoking cigarettes.
Multiple steps and bridges have been built around the Loop. These “improvements” vanilla’d up the trail, which used to route hikers straight up the side of the rock and provide a few good creek crossings on the other side.
If you’re looking for quiet around the mountain, try Wolf Rock and Cedar Rock trails.
Hike Highlights:
• Taking pictures that looked like we were falling off the earth.
• Being eye-level with birds in flight at the top of the mountain.
• Plenty of amazing ridges and views.
• A sense that you can see how the earth was formed.
• Houseless chimneys.
Blue Ridge Dayhiking 
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