When I normally think about state parks the first thing that comes to mind is normally the image of people pulling campers and experiencing the outdoors from a portable apartment. I don't think there is anything wrong with this but personally I really want to be surrounded by nature and get back to some sense of minimalism and be devoid of such modern comforts such as DirecTV (which has excellent baseball coverage). South Mountain State Park is absolutely an exception to the image I have regarding state parks.
Since everything is relative, South Mountain State Park is very conveniently located under 90 minutes from Charlotte, NC just north of Lincolnton. We arrived at the park entrance at 730AM on Saturday morning to be met by a locked gate and notification that the park does not open until 8AM. Once we entered the physical grounds of the park we found ample parking at the uppermost parking lot and back country camping site registry. This is a location, unlike most national forests, where you are required to camp at a designated location.
Since I always have that sense of fear when I leave a car in any parking location unattended overnight I felt that this was one of the better possible locations to park, especially with the closed front gate to the park. I don't know if this matters to anyone else but it is important to me.
After triple reviewing our planned trek for the day, Mary and I settled on the second most distant primitive camping location.
South Mountain State Park has numerous possible routes to reach any location in the park. The diversity possible here is simply incredible and allows the visitor the option of creating interesting loop hikes rather than the déjà vu inducing out-and-back trips that so many of us experience.
For our hike we settled on the Fox Trail Campsite which meant that our trek would take us over the following trails:
High Shoals Trail
Upper Falls Trail
HQ Trail
(Jacob Branch Campsite for an early lunch around 10AM)
Lower CCC Trail
Fox Trail
Fox Trail Campsite
The hike itself was beautiful overall. The High Shoals Trail begins as a mellow hike along the river. It is a very well maintained trail with many wooden bridges and a well beaten path. As you approach the lower fall area there are some really nice small waterfalls to take in. This is a great opporuntity to just view the falls for a moment because everything is getting ready to change. 
At the top of the High Shoals trail there is a fork in the woods taking you either down to a campsite which would be ideal for family trips or a trail that takes you further into the wilderness. We elected to go into the wilderness. The name South Mountain State Park really does involved Mountains so expect some moderate climbing from this point forward, nothing crippling but expect to breath pretty hard. The trails are well marked and there are ample views to the valleys below and peaks in the distance. I can only imagine how incredible the foliage would be in this area. When we stopped for an early lunch at Jacob Branch Campsite we ran into a solo hiker packing up for the morning. This was the only person we saw our first day there (we heard other people, keep reading). This was a great campsite with close and easy to locate water, a picnic table (such a strange comfort that makes for a nice convenience) and primitive horse stalls. There was ample room for numerous tents here as well as metal fire pits. We snacked on some salami sandwiches and reviewed our upcoming hike. After a digestion break we threw our packs back on and continued onward and in the case of our location, upward. The trail was hardly memorable for the next mile, it was well maintained, and enjoyable. We reached camp around noon. Fox Trail campsite is about the size of a football field squared with fire pits and is a beautiful little clearing in the woods.
The following morning we awoke early and had broken camp before 10AM. We had decided on the following trail combination to reach the parking lot:
Fox Trail South East
Jacob Branch Trail North East
Upper Falls Trail East
High Shoals Falls Loop North (towards parking lot, not the stairs)
One note of particulars regarding this part of our hike would be the Jacob Branch Trail. This starts rolling down hill pretty slowly and by the mid section where it hits the water is easily the steepest of all the trails we experienced in the park albeit, downhill. This trail reminded me of the mudslide in Romancing the Stone and if we would have slipped we could have easily been just like Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. When we crossed the stream we were dreading the hike up... completely unfounded. The hike up was under 10 minutes and barely considered as moderate.
We cleared out from campsite to parking lot in under 2 hours, which shocked both of us.
So that is a lot more detail than anyone most likely needs regarding our 24 hours at South Mountain State Park. Overall I would say that it is one of the more beautiful locations imaginable with a wide range of trails. Depending on your conditioning and interests you could spend an entire day on the trails or do as we did and hike in the morning and relax in the afternoon. I highly recommend backpacking and hiking here and while the route we did could easily be done as a day hike, making a night out of the adventure does not disappoint in the least. This area is approachable enough to be a great introduction to backpacking but more importantly it is challenging enough for you to feel it in your legs two days after you leave. I highly recommend hiking here.
Difficulty: 6/10
Beauty: 6/10
Location Convenience: 8/10
Return Factor: 7/10
Physical Address of Parking Lot/Trail Head: 3001 South Mountain Park Avenue, Connelly Springs, NC 28612
Link to Trail Map: http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/somo/pics/parkmap.pdf
Happy Trails!
Jeremy
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