Hanging Rock State Park: A Hiker’s Winter Oasis

It happens every year. Winter comes and cabin fever begins. The legs start twitching, just aching for a good trail to tackle. Stokes County’s Hanging Rock State Park is a perfect remedy. The Park faces south, which allows the winter sun to warm up the mountainside, making it an idea outdoor location. With twelve trails covering 18 miles leading to amazing waterfalls and high rock cliffs, there is plenty to cure that cabin fever.

While sitting on top of the high rocky cliff that the park is named for, it is hard to believe that over 800 million years ago there was a shallow sea covering the area. It is believed that over the years the continents shifted and pushed up the mountains that formed the Sauratown Mountains and then shifted again to create the valleys below that can be seen from the cliffs through out the park.

The fifth state park covers over 6900 acres and plans are in the works for additional acreage to be added. In addition to the waterfalls and high rock cliffs, the park offers camping, picnic areas with grills, rock climbing and a twelve-acre lake for the warmer months. There is even a cave that is said to have been used by the Tories during the later part of the Revolutionary War.

As the temperature starts dropping it is time to lace up the boots and head out to Hanging Rock State Park to sit high up on a rock in the sky and watch the clouds gently float by the skyline of downtown Winston-Salem or to rest on a rock at the base of a waterfall and listen to the water cascading by.


There are 29 State Parks in North Carolina. This is the first of a series on the nine State Parks in the area covered by ROAM.

Hanging Rock State Park is located on Moore’s Spring Road four miles northwest of Danbury in Stokes County. Go to http://ils.unc.edu/parkproject/ncparks.html for more information on all of the North Carolina State Parks.

by Denise Clay