Crowders and South Mountains state parks draw summer crowds
Summer vacation has arrived, and the longer days and warm weather offer the perfect opportunity to get outside and enjoy nature.
Cleveland County is the perfect jumping off point to visit several local state parks in the area with miles of trails, overlooks and waterfalls just a short drive away.
Crowders Mountain State Park
Located a 25 minute drive away in Gaston County and just 30 miles from Charlotte, the park offers a variety of hiking trails ranging from strenuous to easy, towering cliffs, and overlooks that give visitors a view of Charlotte on a clear day. The park has a unique trail system that links Crowders Mountain State Park, Kings Mountain State Park and Kings Mountain Military Park.
It’s also become a hot spot for hiking in the region.
Park Ranger Kelly Cooke said the park has seen soaring attendance over the years with 958,744 people visiting last year.
“When I started working here 25 years ago it was 125,000 people,” he said. “Over the past five or six years, Crowders was floating somewhere between… the number one and number five position for most visited state park in North Carolina.”
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In 2020, even with the park closed for a month and a half because of COVID, they saw 763,919 visitors come through.
He said as Charlotte grows, park traffic has grown as well.
“Majority of the people are probably from the Charlotte area, but it’s from all over,” he said. “All over the state and all over the country and even the world. We had an actual Tibetan Buddhist monk come through.”
He said they’ve had visitors from Australia, Asia, South Africa, China, Japan and a number of European countries.
Although Cooke said they want people to come and enjoy the park, they are seeing the impact of such high traffic with trail erosion and excessive trash left behind.
There are three trail accesses at the park, Sparrow Springs, Linwood and Boulder Access.
In 2020, a parking lot expansion added around 300 additional parking spaces for a total of 800.
Cooke said the majority of people come for one of the two overlooks, one on Crowders and the other on Pinnacle.
The park also has a unique history and is the only North Carolina park with ties to World War I.
Cooke said the park was a practice artillery range during the war, and they still occasionally find shell casings.
John McHugh, who lives in Gastonia but is originally from Ireland, frequents Crowders Mountain State Park so often he’s known as “Irish John” by park staff.
McHugh often brings a bag and picks up trash on his hikes.
He said he started coming to the park almost every day to stay fit and get in shape for section hiking the Appalachian Trail.
He also enjoys meeting new people and has come to know all the regulars.
“I come up here to socialize,” he said. “I come up here to saunter. When I want to hike, I go to the AT.”
Originally a soccer player, he started hitting the trails to stay in shape when he got too old to play the game.
“The only regret I have is I didn’t start hiking sooner,” McHugh said. “For me, it helps clear the mind and connect with nature.”
He moved to the states in the '80s and started coming to Crowders Mountain a couple of years later.
“To me, this is just my happy place,” he said.
South Mountains State Park
The rugged park, which is located in Connelly Springs, boasts 40 miles of trails, overlooks and waterfalls, including the 80 foot High Shoals Falls.
Mary Griffin, park ranger, said many people are drawn to the park in the summer because of its water attractions.
“Obviously in the summer time a lot of folks are drawn to the waterfalls and the rivers to splash around and play and cool off. The waterfall is a nice feature to take in. Also for fishing, we have delayed harvest trout waters and wild trout.”
Griffin said camping, both car and pack-in, are popular, and the park also has equestrian camping.
Like other parks in the area, South Mountains has seen a trend of increased visits to the park over the years going from 272,402 visitors in 2018 to 526,897 in 2021. Traffic dramatically increased during COVID and has tapered off some this year but is still higher than usual.
“In general, our visitation increases every year,” Griffin said. “However, visitation increased to record numbers in 2021. Looking at monthly totals so far for 2022, visitation trends are lower than 2021 levels but still higher than 2020 numbers.”
Griffin said campsites require registration and recommended making reservations six weeks out. She said there is high traffic volume on holidays and weekends and recommended people come during the week if possible and early on the weekends.
Randeep Singh and Jasmeet Sachdeba who were visiting the park Monday with their family, said it was their first time at South Mountains, and they had discovered the park through a Google search. Sachdeba said they are from Charlotte, and they were looking for something close by since they got a late start.
“It’s good. We like this place,” Singh said.
He said they hiked up the High Shoals trail to see the falls and also attempted some fishing.
Other options
Other local hiking trails include the Broad River Greenway on the outskirts of Boiling Springs, the Kings Mountain Gateway Trail, Kings Mountain Military and State Parks, and the First Broad River Trail in Shelby.
This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: A look at hiking trails at Crowders and South Mountains state parks
