Mayo River State Park
The Journey
Stop two along the trip was about an hour east from Pilot Mountain. We made a stop along the way to grab coffee at The Mad Bean in Madison, NC. A neat environment with plenty of room, good coffee, and some other people who all knew each other. We stayed for a bit and enjoyed the AC, Wi-Fi, and comfy chairs.
We then took a slight detour (we got lost) down some back road (cause I missed the first turn). We kept going for a bit, the road went from pavement to gravel, and then we saw the “State Maintenance Ends” sign. I started to think this probably wasn’t the right way, and we encountered a road block of four friendly dogs. We waited for them to move, and kept going for some reason. I was adventurous. I decided to finally give up when the only way to go was an ATV trail and I wasn’t about to push my luck in the civic. The creek crossing was enough for the day. We then realized the address on Waze was wrong and it was right off the (paved) main road.
The Park
The location for this park is new as of 2010. This is very obvious, as the only stuff at the park is the park office, two picnic shelters, a fishing pond, a half mile trail, and a 1.8 mile trail. Everything was visible from three parking lot areas. It was a little underwhelming, but I have hope that it can become more over time. This is the government after all, it won’t be quick.
We took the small loop, since we were told the longer “Mayo Mountain” trail had no sights and just was hiking. There is no official access to the river at this point. The trail was easy, very clean and well marked, and there was a small creek that didn’t have a ton of water flow. Afterwards we had lunch in the impressive picnic shelter.
The Waterfall
The lady at the office told us about a waterfall attraction nearby. It was a 15 minute drive down roads in the middle of nowhere. The area is part of the park property, but undeveloped so far. Maybe it will be in the future. There was a trail and a patch of grass for parking, with no service on either AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. We hiked a short distance down the clear (but unmarked) trail. After seeing the waterfall, which took just a short hike down, my recommendation for this park would just to come here. No other traffic, and a unique waterfall. There was a pond that looked like it may be fun to wade in.
parking picture credit: https://waterfallshiker.com/2014/07/26/fall-creek-falls/
So, overall, this was a decent day trip. I’m hoping to come back in a few years and see more. You may wanna head over to one of the other three I visited over this one, but the pictures should tell the story.
Up next on the journey is Hanging Rock. Post coming soon.