Crowders Mountain State Park is in Gastonia North Carolina which is firmly planted in the Piedmont Region. The State Park maintains approximately 5000 acres of land that include Crowders Mountain and Pinnacle Mountain with trails leading around the mountains, along ridgelines, and to overlooks.
We like to call the park Crowded State Park (bit of a bad joke) because it’s quite popular and always packed with people. If you are looking for some seclusion away from people, traffic,noise, this is definitely not the place to go.
It is true that the State Park fills up very quickly, and very early in the morning but if you are in the area it is still a fun family hiking day. There are several positive features about this State Park, it’s easy to get to, there are several trails to choose from that range in difficulty from easy to moderately difficult. It’s a great place to do your first hike, or take your kids out. We took our 2 year old daughter here on her second hike to get used to walking and playing on the trails and it worked out great.
There are a few trails available but the 2 most popular are Crowder’s Trail/Rocktop Trail Loop that will take you around Crowder’s Mountain and up to an overlook, or head along the Ridgeline Trail to Pinnacle Mountain. These trails are slightly moderate in difficuly. If you are looking for something easier, there a flat trail that leads around the lake. If you can’t decide now that’s fine, the best way to start any three of these hikes is parking at the Sparrow Springs Parking Lot.
Map: State Park Map
Parking Lot and GPS: Sparrow Springs Access / 35.2132412,-81.2938318,17.55
Rocktop Trail / Crowders Trail Loop
Trail type: Loop
Length: 6 miles
Difficulty: moderate
Trail Entrance: by Visitor Center
Trail Blazes: red –> orange –> white
Summary
This is a 6 mile loop that will take you up along the ridgeline of Crowders Mountains and to Crowders Mountain Overlook.
Our preferred way to take follow Crowder’s Trail to the Fork where Crowder’s and Rocktop trails meet. Follow Rocktop trail (red blaze) to Crowders Outlook, and back down the mountain on BacksideTrail (orange blaze) then turn left onto Crowder’s Trail (white blaze) to lead back to the Visitor Center.
Review
The entrance to the trail is beside the Visitor Center. Start by following Crowders Trail. When you reach the fork, follow rocktop trail (red blaze) which will almost immediately lead you up to the ridgeline. Be a little weary here, the blazes become confusing your main objective is to get to the top of the ridgeline. Individuals were basically just hiking up to the ridgeline. Once you’re up there you just follow the blazes along the ridge – it’s very rocky and there is not trail persay you just going ot follow the blazes as best you can – until you reach the Radio Tower. Keep following the trail that follows around and beind the Radio Tower to Crowder’s Overlook. When your done at the overlook – follow the stairs down the mountain along the orange blaze. When you reach bottom, turn left to follow Crowders Trail (white blaze) back to the Visitor Center.
We enoyed this hike because there were ample chances for our daughter to walk, the ridge was fun to hike, and the radio tower was oddly entertaining to be up close to. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop along the trail this time to take pictures while trying to maintain our distance during this pandemic.
Pinnacle Trail
Trail type: one-way
Length: 4 miles
Difficulty: moderate
Trail Entrance: by Visitor Center
Trail Blazes: orange blaze
We haven’t had a chance to hike this trail yet but we hear it’s alot of fun. Be weary this trail will take you to Kings Mountain State Park if you don’t turn around at the Pinnacle Overlook so make sure to turn around!