Kings Mountain State Park

Kings Mountain State Park is a bit more of a challenge for a hiker.
Are you ready to accept?
What I mean by that is these trails don’t feature the big ending on top of a mountain that signal the end of the road. These trails can stretch for hours upon hours at a time!
Here’s a breakdown from my own personal treks:
Recreation Trail: This one is marked by Blue Squares. This trail runs 14+ miles because it not only takes you around the state park but also to the nearby Kings Mountain National Military Park. Though it says «Recreation,» it’s not for the easy-​going hiker. The trail can get tiny with some small fallen trees you have to climb over and you will walk through a bunch of spider webs, certain things you don’t find on more manicured trails. I turned back after four miles because I was tired of ruining spiders’ days.
Ridgeline Trail: This one is marked by Red Squares and takes you to the North/​South Carolina border and will even take you to the Kings Pinnacle side if you choose to follow it. It’s a beautiful trail but it is a long one for not that much payoff. They have a historical marker at the border but besides that the border is a thin trail. However, if you go past that you can find a small little side area that has some cool boulders to climb on. To get to the border and back, I spent a good five hours so be prepared!
Lake Crawford Trail: Marked by Orange Squares. Though this trail is only 0.4 miles long, I found this trail to be easily the most pleasant. It wraps around the adorable Lake Crawford. It has so many places to park your rear and look out over the waters! Also, the trail ends at a small lookout with some benches and information telling you about how the entire trail was an Eagle Project by a local Boy Scout back in 2011! Awesome! To this day, it ranks among the top Eagle Scout Projects in the entire country!
WATCH OUT FOR WILDLIFE: Just walking across the trail delta in the morning, I came across a pretty big jet-​black snake. He went his way and I went my way. Keep your eyes peeled!
PRO TIP: Don’t come to this park until at least 10 a.m. It’s technically supposed to open at 8 a.m. Both of the times I’ve been there, however, no one was manning what I could only assume was the check-​in booth at that time. Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of it but there’s technically a $ 2 entrance fee and if you don’t get there while they’re there and you park, you wind up with a nice little warning sticker like I got.
But yeah! Definitely give this place a try!