Talk:Rocky Fork State Park

Hike report Flint Creek and Flint Mountain Trails, August 2017: The State Park now has a nice parking lot inside the gate at the main entrance. They have been making a lot of progress on placing trail markers and signs, and installing water crossing and steps. The Flint Creek Trail had log bridges installed on all but one of the creek crossings and that final crossing is near completion. The trail is in very good condition with the vegetation cleared along the trail until meeting the park boundary. Once you pass the park boundary into the Cherokee National Forest the trail is still in good condition, but stinging nettle lines the trail. The Flint Creek Trail is a moderate steady gradient with slightly more gradient as you near the top. New signage has been installed at the top to direct you to the various trail alternatives, including a connector to the AT. The Flint Mountain Trail is an option at the top of Flint Creek that will loop back to the State Park entrance along what is described as a dry ridge ecosystem. The first part of the trail is a relatively steep gradient and there is quite a bit of vegetation, including nettle, on the trail. Once on top of the ridge it follows an old logging road along a relatively flat gradient until descending back to the park entrance where the downhill gradient increases. Along the ridgeline there are lots of blackberries and wineberries and signs of bears that are likely feeding on them. The entire loop is roughly 5 miles and is less difficult if doing the loop with Flint Creek first.