Daffodils are a perennial flower popular for their robust nature, their ability to come back year after year, their willingness to say, “Shoot, we can’t wait any longer — it may still be cold, but we’re coming out!” And out they come, still striving in the woods where they once graced early homesteads that have long since been absorbed back into nature.

Three entries for our GetHiking! Guide to 3 Daffodil Hikes each include passage by old homesteads where the odds of encountering daffodils, those first responders of spring, are pretty high, even as early as late January.

Each guide includes a detailed route description, map, key details (such as how to find the trail), a hike overview, a video tour and more. For additional information on how to maximize your chances of spotting early season daffodils, check out this blog post.

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The best-known trails get inundated on a sunny weekend day. But there are other equally good trails that somehow fly under the radar.  Maybe they’re new, maybe they’re off the beaten path, maybe there’s simply no good reason they haven’t been discovered.

In this three-guide packet we share three trails that, for whatever reason, are great hikes but tend not to attract crowds. They are:

1. Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake: Day-Hike Section L (Rollingview Access to NC 98), Durham. 3.2 miles (one way)
2. Butner-Falls Lake Game Lands: Butner Depot, Bahama. 5 miles. 
3. Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area, Snow Camp. 2.5 miles.

Each guide includes a map, detailed route description and overview, in including trail difficulty, how to find the trailhead, what the experience is like and more.

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1. Sycamore Trail (loop portion), Umstead State Park, Raleigh. 4.4 miles. We like to avoid the big crowds at Umstead by starting at the bike and bridle trailhead on the Glenwood Avenue side of the park. From there, pick up the the Sycamore Trail’s loop portion, a mile-and-a-half of which is along Sycamore Creek, the super hero of Piedmont Creeks. In dry times, its personality is likewise: a little flow here and there, some standing water. But when the skies empty the creek throws off its wan water-ways and impersonates a raging Appalachian whitewater creek. Probably the best water walk in the region.
2. Duke Forest, Korstian Division: Gate 25, Durham. 3.2 miles. The show stopper here is New Hope Creek, about 0.8 miles in. The trail parallels New Hope Creek for about three-quarters-of-a-mile, providing access to some of the best waterfall impersonations in the Triangle. A couple of boulders above the creek give especially good access to the action.
3. Little River Regional Park, Rougemont. 4.5 miles, with a 3.5-mile option. Hike either the North River Loop (1.2 miles) or South River Loop (1.4 miles) in summer and you’ll likely wonder how the Little River manages to maintain its “river” status. Ah, but after a rain, the north end of the North Loop in particular is mesmerizing as the current makes its way through several rocky channels. sycamore

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Few places do as good a job of quickly escorting you from civilization as the Piedmont Land Conservancy’s 189-acre Knight Brown Nature Preserve. Take the Beechwood Bottom Loop Trail from the trailhead and hike clockwise, and you quickly descend to Belews Creek.   Large sections of three trails run along the creek, which has forged a surprisingly deep valley: in just over a tenth of a mile, the terrain rises 80 vertical feet above the creek. A great getaway with 3.3 miles of hiking just north of Greensboro, N.C.

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