From the Archives: Table Rock State Park South Carolina
*For those of you returning to the site after our absence, welcome back! We hope you like our newly re-designed blog. Our site archivist recently delved into the depths of our dusty old file cabinet and recovered a treasure trove of pictures from past hikes. Here’s the first of them…Table Rock, which we consider the best hike in South Carolina!*
**We have added Table Rock SC to our list of Hikes in the Southern Appalachians. It’s the top entrant from South Carolina by far.**
In June of 2010, we suffered what would come to be known as the “Great Ass Bust.” While trying to make emergency repairs in the attic of our (at that time) new house, Brian took a wrong step and fell through the raised ceiling into our bedroom, plunging eleven feet. On down the way he hit the bedroom door, which happened to be ajar, with what in Texas they call his ‘ass bone’; the door was knocked right off its hinges. Brian landed amidst a pile of drywall, popcorn insulation and a shattered door, and struggled to make the first 911 call of his life.
Once in the hospital, it was determined that he had suffered a compression fracture to his L2 vertebra…he had broken his back. This in turn resulted in two surgeries, ten days in the hospital, a month long absence from work, three months of rehab, and the postponement for a year of our church wedding ceremony. It was six months before he was fully recovered enough to feel like himself again.
Brian was 42 years old when this happened, with a lot left undone that he very much wanted to do. He feared at the time that he would be unable to hike again. The accident came following a year when Brian had suffered through a period of poor health (an unrelated back injury coupled with a pair of severe, back to back throat infections.) In the entirety of the years on 2009 and 2010, Brian could do very little actual hiking, the thing he loves best apart from his wife Sylvia.
The result was a crisis of confidence, which left Brian dispirited and wondering if he was still up to the kind of adventures he had once embraced so readily.
What follows is one of several adventures that put Brian back on the trail, so to speak. A year later, we would be in Peru on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. But every journey, they say, starts with a single step. This is perhaps that first real step as Brian got his game back.
Brian and Sylvia enjoy hiking in their native state of North Carolina. Of the two Carolinas, it is the upper of the two which boasts the highest mountains in the eastern US and is clearly the better of the two for hiking.
But this is not to say there is no hiking to be done in South Carolina. The section of the state that parallels the NC border west of the city of Charlotte, NC has some excellent trails. This area is popularly known as the Foothills, and in fact, its most famous trail is the Foothills Trail.
One of the best hikes in this or any other part of South Carolina, without any question, is Table Rock. This is not be confused with the Table Rock Mountain of North Carolina, on the edge of the Linville Gorge, which is in itself a great hike. And of course, it shouldn’t be confused with THIS table shaped rock.
We decided to foray into this area in 2011 after Brian read about it in a hiking guide. With a three-day weekend in hand, we packed our gear into the now long gone Xterra and headed south of the border.
Table Rock State is one of a cluster of parks in this area. Among them is the more famous Ceasar’s Head State Park. From there you can get a good view of Table Rock.
We timed this perfectly. Arriving on a Sunday in mid-September, we had the place almost to ourselves. The large campground was almost empty, and on the trail we would see almost no other hikers.
The hike begins, as they so often do, at the park’s nature center. There is a wooden boardwalk area with a nice little waterfall right at the start. We lingered near the falls for pictures.
After the falls, the trail gets much steeper. This area gets a lot of rain, like the Nantahala Forest to the North, and the vegetation here is quite dense.
The trail work on this path is quite good, South Carolina has obviously invested in its highland parks.
After a bit of climbing the trail reaches an area of enormous boulders, some of which remind Brian of the smaller Whale Rocks near our home in Raleigh. There’s some great trail work to take hikers past this area.
Above here the trail passes a junction with the Ridge Trail, which heads to the summit of Big Pinnacle, where there is another great view. Then it reaches a small shelter, where there is a partial view, and then presses on across slabs with open views over rock steps hewn right into granite. The trail returns to the trees to reach the viewless summit of Table Rock at 3124 feet (it is one of the highest mountains in NC…the highest, Sasssafras Mountain, 3554 feet, is not far away.) There’s not much to see here, but this hike is not over yet.
The hike goes on another quarter mile of so, descending from the summit to a prominent knob atop the huge granite cliffs that one sees on the way in along SC route 11. Here, an impressive 180-degree panorama opens out. Below, surrounded by a circle of mountains, is a large lake which is actually the water supply for the city of Greenville, SC, just twenty odd miles away.
The hike reminded us of Looking Glass Rock in North Carolina, not so far away by the town of Brevard. Big cliffs, one-eighty views, even the treed -in summit and the surprise that comes after.
This is definitely a place to explore, find a great spot, sit, have a snack and enjoy the views.
Here, Brian reflected that over the past two plus years he had been taking it too easy. Partly because he was forced to, but also partly because he had been scared to push himself further. He wasn’t as young or as spry as he had been, and he was afraid to find out that maybe he couldn’t do it anymore. In the end, what he actually found out was that he COULD do it, and how very wonderful the feeling was. There’s never a bad day on the trail, and the further you go, the further you push yourself, it always seems that the better it gets.
Ten years have passed since that injury, nine since this hike. In all that time, Brian has not yet seen a hike that has stopped him (unless it was Angels Landing some years back, which we weren’t quite ready for.) We don’t intend to slow down any time soon.
Table Rock is located right near the edge of what is known as the Appalachian Escarpment, with the Foothills of the Piedmont below. It’s a great place with a ton to do…we love this area and its many fine trails and gushing waterfalls.
Two of our favorite places to visit are on the other side of the border…Dupont State Forest and Gorges State Park. Table State Park rock offers much than just this one hike, and we vowed to be back soon…a vow we’ve not yet been able to keep.
Perhaps it’s time we returned to Table Rock, where it re-began.
