bleslie![[search]](http://wwwcache.wral.com/presentation/v1/images/icons/16x12/search-form-icon.gif){kind=icon}
Site SearchHow many of you have been to Hanging Rock State Park north of Winston-Salem. What were your experiences?
The first time I visited was 1994 following a severe ice storm. Sky Five gave us a bird's eye view of the thick wintry coating that weighed down heavily on the oaks and pines splitting thousands of boughs and branches and making a mess of the popular park.
The following year our family hiked and camped at Hanging Rock State Park with some close friends. We had a blast. The kids loved the trails and rocky perches. They also liked the 12 acre lake and old stone bathhouse constructed just after the Depression when the park was born. Hanging Rock has grown in size over the years to nearly 7,000 acres today. It is one of the few places where you can see both Canadian and Carolina hemlock trees standing side by side. Favorite destinations in the park include Devil’s Chimney, Cascade Falls, Wolf Rock and of course Hanging Rock itself.
These are known as the lonely mountains. Some call them “the mountains away from the mountains. Hanging Rock is part of the fractured Sauratown chain. And let’s get the pronunciation right.
Sauratown is pronounced like sour-town. The mountains are not part of the Blue Ridge chain but are not that far away. Thanks to the durability of their quartzite Hanging Rock and nearby Pilot Mountain have stood up to the ravages of erosion in the Piedmont for more than a million years.
From Raleigh you can be in the mountains in a little more than two hours. And while the Sauratown peaks can’t rival those in the Blue Ridge and Black Mountain chains to the west they are still quite impressive. To get there just take !-40 to Winston-Salem and head north on Highway 52.
Bill Leslie's Carolina Conversations
People are always asking me where to take vacation. What's a cool place? What's the most scenic drive? Carolina Conversations attempts to answer those questions and others.
Hanging Rock
Copyright 2008 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
- Say It Right! Posted: Dec. 4 7:51 a.m.
- Guess Where? Posted: Dec. 3, 2008
- Favorite Downtown Posted: Dec. 2, 2008
Share:
11 Comments
Featured Blogposts
-
Gardening Gloves
Where Can We Find the Best Christmas Trees? -
Research Triangle Rock
I.G.B. band keeps it heavy -
Barry Jacobs
Wake takes ACC edge to extreme
Other Recent Blogposts
- The Skinny: Hinting at a Cisco deal, analyst changes course, says Red Hat a 'buy'
- Bill Leslie's Carolina Conversations: Say It Right!
- Brian Shrader's Siteseeing Blog: Watch that Wii
- Gardening Gloves: Where Can We Find the Best Christmas Trees?
- Gaming Guru: Advertisers Turn to In-Game Opportunities
Welcome to GOLO, where WRAL.com visitors can comment on stories and create profile pages, blogs and photo galleries.
You must be a registered WRAL.com user to use these tools. Click here to register or log in.
GOLO member since October 1, 2008
October 2, 2008 10:38 a.m.
October 2, 2008 7:43 a.m.
GOLO member since March 14, 2008
October 1, 2008 5:54 p.m.
GOLO member since February 4, 2008
October 1, 2008 12:47 p.m.
GOLO member since November 20, 2007
October 1, 2008 12:28 p.m.
When I was 13 years old, I began to attend camp at Vade Mecum, the Episcopal camp and conference center on the other side of Moore's Knob, and became infatuated with Hanging Rock State Park (my other favorite was Fort Macon State Park). During camp sessions, there was always a trip to the park, with picnic supper, swimming, hiking and all of that good stuff. Man, was that water cold!!! I have hiked to the top of Hanging Rock several times; the last time I went, I was about 21 years, and figured that I might never do it again, so I went for one last hike to see the wonderful Saura Mountains from above. I've been to Cascade Falls a number of times, as well as to Tory's Den in 1990-something, when there was a reunion of folks who had worked at Vade Mecum back in the fifties. The camp itself was available to us for the reunion and we did camp things, slept in double-decker bunks in Cheshire Hall, ate meals in the dining room, sang camp songs and reminisced
GOLO member since July 10, 2007
October 1, 2008 11:53 a.m.
We also found a great restaurant in Winston Salem. It is an Italian place called Paul's. If you want an authentic NY Italian restaurant experience with handmade pasta, you have to go there. I loved it, and yes, I am from NY.
October 1, 2008 11:44 a.m.
GOLO member since July 7, 2007
October 1, 2008 10:45 a.m.
October 1, 2008 10:37 a.m.
Saw your Carolina Conversations piece on Hanging Rock on WRAL this am.
My husband proposed to me on Hanging Rock Mountain. We had been celebrating dating anniversaries at restaurants and to our dismay, when we'd go back to those special places, they had either changed ownership and the menu was different, were another type of business altogether, or, in one case, the restaurant was no longer there because it had burned down!
My future husband decided that when he proposed, he wanted to do it at a place we could go back to!
After a lovely day hiking and picnicking, we sat up on the "hanging" part and after singing some Cat Stevens songs together he got down on one knee (which is painful on rock, mind you) and proposed.
We've been married 17 years now and have two wonderful children. Hanging Rock will always be a special place for us.
Nancy from Cary
GOLO member since July 10, 2007
October 1, 2008 10:21 a.m.
Stories are open for comments between 7am and 10pm Monday through Friday, but GOLO is always open. Sound off on community issues, create your own blog, upload and share image galleries and make new friends in GOLO!