Raven Rock State Park

This past weekend, Joe and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. At the pool this evening, a friend asked me if we had done anything, and before I could answer, the kids chimed in, “Yes, we did! We had fireworks with friends and went hiking …” We gave each other knowing looks. In kids’ minds, “we” is all of us.

On Saturday, we went hiking at Raven Rock State Park. It was Joe’s idea, and we had just bought ourselves hiking backpacks with hydration packs, leading to excessive use of the phrase “my water bladder” by my oldest. The weather was supposed to hold out until 3 pm. We left home a little after 11 am loaded down with our bladders full of water and our backpacks full of chips and granola bars. We probably hiked between four and five miles, during which the rain came an hour or two early. Joe got to use his new Buck knife to carve the boys hiking sticks, and I got to take pictures of the forest. On the way home, we stopped at Pizza Hut, and Joe and I sent the boys to the other side of the mostly empty restaurant while we stuffed our faces and pretended it was a date.

Raven Rock State Park is south of Raleigh near Lillington, about a one-hour drive for us, and has really nice facilities and a variety of hiking trails. If we make it back again this summer, we will try the section of the Campbell Creek Loop Trail that starts at the visitor center and do some wading or try to hike to the falls. If we don’t make it back until fall, we may bring our tent and make a night of it if we feel the kids (and mom) are ready to do a backpacking trip! There is a canoe-in campground that would also be so much fun for the family or a group of families.