Portions of the 29 North Carolina State Parks that had been closed as a result of the coronavirus reopened this past weekend. Some reopened all their trails, some just a few. It’s worth a visit to the N.C. State Parks Facebook page for a sense of how things went systemwide. You’ll need to go beyond the photo of cars queued up as far as the eye can see at Raven Rock State Park to get a sense of what Reopening Day was like.
Category Archives: Hiking
GetOut! More trails open this weekend
As we reported earlier this week, you’ll have more hiking options this weekend as a result of Gov. Roy Cooper’s easing of the coronavirus-influenced stay-at-home order. Initially, it sounded like all trails in North Carolina’s 41 state parks would reopen. Turns out that’s not quite the case.
Gov. Cooper: Parks, trails ‘encouraged to reopen’
Note: This post was updated at 8:30 a.m. on May 6 to reflect additional details on the phased reopening of North Carolina’s State Parks.
Under Phase 1 of the reopening of North Carolina in light of the coronavirus pandemic, “parks and trails are encouraged to reopen.”
Butner: a walk with distance — and distancing
Sunday, we had a need for distance, while at the same time distancing. With the temperature being in the low 80s, with not a cloud to be seen, and with summer’s humidity still a few weeks out, we knew that a long hike amid no fellow hikers might be hard to come by.
Twelve N.C. State Parks where you can still hike
All of North Carolina’s 41 State Parks have closed their visitor centers, restrooms, camping and other touchy facilities, while another 29 have closed completely, including trails. And while the latter is an understandable bummer, it overshadows the fact that you can still hike in the 12 remaining parks.