Hanging Rock State Park- Hiking Season is here!

We finally had a beautiful weekend and decided to spend a day hiking. It was much needed after what felt like the longest winter ever!  We decided to go back to Hanging Rock, which we hiked a couple years ago. Besides the hike up to the top of Hanging Rock there are several other trails and 5 waterfalls in the park.  The last time we came we only saw three of the waterfalls, so i wanted to come back and see the other two.

First we did the short hike to Hidden and Window Falls. There were actually a ton of people hiking, and hanging out at the falls so we didn't stay long at either fall.  This is Window falls.

This one is Hidden Falls.  Both are nice, small falls that you can walk right up to them and climb the rocks near them.  They are both on the same trail right off from the visitors center. After we hiked back to the parking lot, we decided to hike up Hanging Rock.

This is the view of Hanging Rock from the visitor center parking lot. We hiked all the way to the top! 

Just to give you an idea of where we hiked up to, you can see folks sitting on the 'hanging rock'  here.

My husband and daughter were the only ones brave enough to walk all the way to the edge. My son and i made it about half way out before deciding our knees would turn to jelly if we walked out any further.

We found a spot not quite as scary to sit and relax on.  Directly across from us is Buffalo Mountain in Floyd, Virginia (home).  It's hard to see in the photo, but you can see it in the one below.  We could also see Pilot Mountain to our Left, although i didn't get a photo of it.

That mountain hump right in the center of the photo is Buffalo Mountain, which is just down the road from us.  It's pretty neat to be so far from home, and still be able to see the Buffalo.  It's the highest point in Floyd County and can be seen almost anywhere in the county.   If you take route 8 out of Floyd toward NC, it will take you right to Hanging Rock.

After we hiked back to the parking lot, my kids were tired and of course didn't want to see the other water falls. We did hike out to see the Upper Cascades, which is a super quick kick...but still didn't get to see Tory's waterfall or the Lower cascade which is the whole reason i wanted to come back to Hanging Rock. Looks like we'll just have to come back again next year. :)