OK, so the weather for the day was supposed to start out warm and sunny, but some big storms were lining up around the Tennessee line, building up power before pouring over the mountains and into the Piedmont of North Carolina. I had planned to ride over to Tellico Plains in Tennessee to camp overnight, but the thought of spending the day dodging the storms didn't seem too appealing. So... there is a place that I love to be when the big thunderboomers roll through - Chimney Rock State Park, high up on the cliffs overlooking Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure. The views in wet weather are magnificent, with clouds wreathing the nearby ridges and mist drifting along the Broad River in the valley far below. Chimney Rock had been a privately owned tourist attraction for decades, but the owners wanted to preserve the region for future generations. It took a lot of hard work from a bunch of dedicated people, but thousands of acres have now been saved from development and put into the public domain. Along with the DuPont State Forest and the Gorges State Park above Lake Jocassee, the western part of the state now has the most popular parks in the state system. Each is unique - The Gorges has towering waterfalls, high cliffs and part of the Foothills trail that runs from Oconee in South Carolina to Jones Gap State Park near Travelers Rest, NC. DuPont State Forest has over 11,000 acres of recreational forest, with over 100 miles of trails and old dirt roads for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. Chimney Rock is a bit different. It also has world class scenery, and was featured in some scenes in the movie, Last of the Mohicans. The main part of the park, the part that has been a major tourist attraction for years, will remain much as it was before. The trails are heavily developed, with boardwalks and stairs allowing access to the sheerest cliffs and best views. The clifftop diner will remain, along with the wooden boardwalks. Access will be tightly controlled, with no off-trail hiking or climbing allowed.
However, land from other holdings has been added to the Park, and now some of the land on the north side of Hickory Nut Gorge, over towards Rumbling Bald, will be part of the park. I understand that those lands will be managed as wilder places, with less guardrails and restrictions on travel. I hope so - the Rumbling Bald area, with it's huge cliffs and the world's largest fissure caves, used to be one of my favorite places to ramble. The Park plans are still being developed, so it may be a while before we learn how the park will look in the future. For now, it's a great place to take the kids for an enjoyable day in some spectacular mountain scenery.

A climbing wall is located just up the road from the entrance station at Chimney Rock. There was nobody on it on this rainy day, so I headed on up the winding narrow road to the parking area just below the Chimney. The access road to Chimney Rock was once used every spring for a sports car hill climb event. The annual race was finally cancelled - it really didn't fit in with the natural attractions that the park's owners wanted to stress.




Once you arrive at the parking area and gift shop below the rock, you'll find the entrance to a shaft that has been cut back into the solid granite of the cliff that offers access to the nearly 300 ft. high elevator that carries visitors up to the restaurant and gift shop near the steps to the Chimney. It's a favorite spot in hot weather, since the temps quickly drop to the mid-50s as soon as you walk back into the mountain.

Chimney Rock provides a parking area just for motorcycles, right at the top of the parking lot in front of the gift shop. That's a great service for riders.

This is the tunnel that was carved out of the solid rock of the cliffs that allows access to the elevator. As you walk through the tunnel, you'll pass a number of displays that offer information about the geology of the region.

Inside the diner on top of the cliffs. When the big storms roll through, I like to be sitting on one of the stools in front of the huge plate glass windows that provide a bird's eye view of the Gorge and Lake Lure.

A walkway leads from the restaurant out to the base of the steps that climbs up to the top of Chimney Rock.

The restaurant and walkway, as seen from the Rock. The steps on the right lead up to some other attractions that are even higher up on the cliff face.