This Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club hike was led by David Memory. The first portion was a climb up and back on an unmaintained trail on Snake Mountain. The mountain is the highest entirely within Watauga County at 5500 feet. We park on a DOT parking area near the entrance to Elk Knob State Park. The trail up begins across the road through a locked gate, past a No Trespassing sign. I am told, David and other scouted this route earlier this year and were met by the owner of the lower portion of the mountain. Being a hiker himself, he permitted others to hike and respect the property. We walked through beautiful fields of tall grass and wildflowers. The trail gradually dwindled to just a rut through the fields. Only 7 of us pushed on beyond a halfway point and continued up more steeply and exposed. Views were scarce today. We did catch a glimpse here and there through the clouds.
As we reached the ridge near the top, the climb leveled but became more of a scramble over rocks. Here the land is part of Elk Knob State Park. In the top photo, you can see a road winding up the hillside. That road is part of the Sunalei Preserve, a luxury home development slowed by the real estate downturn. They transferred part of their holding to Elk Knob State Park and Blue Ridge Conservancy to protect the ridge and top of Snake Mountain.
The natural rock gardens here are breathtaking as are the views. The ridge has a blazed trail along it which I assume to come up from the Sunalei Preserve.
Our time is limited on this mountain as there is another climb to follow. None of the climbers made it to the very top of the mountain. I'll do that another day.
We descended about as slow as we went up. The group formed back together and we walked back down to the vehicles.
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