Julian Price Memorial Park is home to several hiking trails including Boone Fork, Price Lake, and Green Knob. The longer Mountains-to-Sea Trail and the Tanawha Trail run through parts of the park. During our visit to the Blue Ridge Parkway, we hiked on most of those trails except for Green Knob (next time!).
Boone Fork Trail
The Boone Fork Trail has high ratings on AllTrails and we agree! This trail has so many different features: meadows, elevation, rock scrambling, creek crossings, ladders, waterfalls, and paved parts in between Loop B and D of the campground. The campground section is also part of the Tanawha Trail which goes 13.5 miles south. There are muddy parts, as many people note on AllTrails, but the trail is still very manageable. We started the hike early in the morning just after sunrise.
Our first delightful scene of the day – a doe with two fawns!
We found the trail to be very well-marked and easygoing on the first section leaving the campground (we did the loop clockwise).
As we continued, the trail became more and more interesting…
We enjoyed the huge boulders…
Soon we started to descend the trail towards the creek.
I’m not sure how many times we crossed the Bee Tree Creek (or the Boone Fork Creek?)…several…but here’s a sample:
The rope crossing and boulder hopping was the most fun!
The ladders/steps were very helpful along the way.
Barley managed to ascend and descend all the ladders and steps. He was even able to descend the steepest one (see below).
We were not sure he would climb down so David went first and I thought I would hand him down if necessary but no need – Barley was a trooper! Unfortunately, I had my hands full and couldn’t snap the pic 🙄.
Some sections were muddy…
Eventually, the trail split off from the Mountain-to-Sea trail. At this point, we were almost finished.
Near the end of the loop, we came upon the meadows at the Price Park Picnic area to end our 6+ mile hike. We were tired and hungry but very glad we did the hike.
Price Lake Trail
Our hike of Price Lake was much easier. We decided to start our hike around 7:30 pm for sunset views. We regretted not getting our kayak out (next time!). We chose the counterclockwise route in order to end our hike on the east shore with a view of Grandfather Mountain.
We meandered through Loop A of the campground before turning south around the lake.
We passed by the amphitheater and the boat rentals.
For the most part, the lake was always visible and we immersed ourselves in the views.
We felt envious of the kayaker who captured the perfect sunset view.
Our hike ended 2 ½ miles later at the dam area looking west. The top of Grandfather Mountain was obscured by the clouds but we enjoyed the beautiful reflections on the lake. A perfect way to end the day.
For more about hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway, see the later part of our previous post featuring the Tanawha Trail near Linville Viaduct.