Stone Mountain State Park NC - Days 29-30

Day 29 – Tuesday April 26, 2016 We drove to Wilksboro for breakfast and to catch up on our Internet needs. After breakfast we drove to Warrior Creek Campground on the shore of W. Kerr Scott Lake outside of Wilksboro. It is owned/operated by the US Corps of Engineers. We had heard last year they had updated this campground and this was our third attempt to check it out. They don't open it until April 15^th and close it October 15^th. We noted a few sites we liked if we decide to come here in the future.

We departed the campground and drove up highway 16 to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped at the Northwest Trading Company (a nice craft/gift shop). They have some locally made crafts but did see some things from China. Then we leisurely drove North on the parkway for 30 miles or so. The dogwood trees were in bloom and really pretty. This is a very pretty section of the parkway. You can see several homes and farms off the parkway.

Near Doughton Park along side the Blue Ridge Parkway

We had heard from a camper at Stone Mountain State Park that the campgrounds on the parkway were closed. We stopped at Doughton Park Campground and they were closed. I don't know if they will reopen later in the season or are permanently closed. We camped there 3 years ago and the ranger told us then there were rumors they were going to close them. Such a shame that the National Parks System is not funded to maintain the parks properly. There are several campgrounds on the parkway in North Carolina and some have been closed for awhile and the others have not been maintained or upgraded so they can be used by the taxpayers. I have written them in the past to complain and make suggestions to get more campers to use them but didn't even get the courtesy of a reply. Our elected officials are too busy scratching each others back and the backs of lobbyist to get re-elected to worry about tax payers or how much money is sent overseas to support foreign nations that hate us.

Stone Mountain State Park's upper boundary comes almost to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped at the overlook where we could see the massive stone top of Stone Mountain. We got off the parkway at highway 21 and decided to drive the 8 miles to Sparta to get a mid-afternoon lunch at Baywood Boys. We both ordered the BBQ pork meal like Lena did a couple of weeks ago. We ate all we could hold and both got a carry out box and took enough with us for a least one more meal for each of us.

Stone Mountain view from the Parkway

Stone Mountain view from the Parkway

Then we returned to the campground and packed all that we could for our departure tomorrow. We took one more ride around the campground and then turned in our time sheet and keys. We don't get any pay, but we have found $.31, several tablecloth clips, clothes pin, tent stakes and an awning hook. We get a very large full hookup campsite and the use of a golf cart but they ask us to fill out a time sheet for the hours we work.

Someone has a sense of humor. We spotted this on hwy 21 between Sparta and Roaring Gap.

Day 30 – Wednesday April 27, 2016 We had breakfast, did the last minutes departure preparation items and was on the road at 8:30AM. We had an uneventful trip home, arriving at 2PM. We had a good month in the mountains and now we have to catch up on items around the home-place before our next adventure.