It’s been ages since we’ve packed our bags for a weekend getaway and with a three-day weekend on our hands, we decided to head south in hopes of finding some slightly warmer weather.
Our plan was to hike Hanging Rock State Park, stay overnight in Winston-Salem, then return to the park for a second day of hiking. The drive to the park took about 90 minutes, most of which was spent on very windy rural roads and upon our arrival we could tell we needed to anticipate heavy traffic on the trail.
We hiked up to Hanging Rock, where we shared the scenic vistas with a number of other people and searched for quiet spots to take in the views, then hit a few other trails for a total of about five hours of hiking.
After a day at the park we headed into Winston-Salem, where we had an incredible dinner at Konnichiwa. The spicy tuna rolls, Stairway to Heaven roll and Super Bowl hibachi all hit the spot. We even joked that it would be worth the 90-minute drive just for the food.
After dinner we were really ready to crash. I wasn’t too keen on another long drive down rural roads, so we checked Google Maps to see what we might be able to do if we took the highway back to Christiansburg the following day. That’s when we discovered Pilot Mountain State Park, just off the highway about 15 minutes outside of Winston-Salem.
Rather than returning to Hanging Rock, we opted instead to check out Pilot Mountain. It kind of reminded me of the mountain in Close Encounters, the movie. It was another incredible outing, though it probably pushed Donna a bit beyond her comfort zone. But outside of the one, white-knuckle section of trail, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
