Today dawned bright and sunny. Pilot Mountain State Park was just down the road from the inn so after breakfast we headed there. They have an upper parking lot that you can drive to get you close to pilot knob but they close that parking lot as soon as it gets full in the morning. Fortunately we got there just in time. The ranger said we were one of the last five cars she was going let up. If we weren’t able to drive up we would have had to either take a shuttle or hike up.
It was not possible to hike to the top of pilot knob but there was a little short bike to a look out that gave you a good view of the knob and there was a trail that went all the way around the base of the knob. These pictures are from that trail. The rock and the knob was very impressive and the views from the trail all the way around the knob we’re just as impressive. Though the trail was less than a mile long it took us an hour and 15 minutes to do it so that John could get all the pictures that he wanted. I did get to see some mountain laurel and rhododendron on the trail.
After our hike we had a picnic lunch and then we headed for hanging rock State Park.