Devils Fork State Park

Date: Saturday, May 23, 2009
Location / Map

Trails: Bear Cove
Distance: 2 miles
Time: about 1 hour, 30 minutes

Rating: &&& (out of 5)

The family was up early on Saturday morning; we decided to go for a hike. The skies were overcast, but again the weather forecast was calling for rain only in the afternoon. We had never been to Devils Fork State Park, but it is only ~40 minutes away from our house, and I knew it had a 2 mile loop trail that seemed like it would be good for kids. With the kids in the backpacks, we started on the Bear Cove trail around 10am.

It's a very nice trail. It starts out going downhill before crossing a park road and heading uphill. Somewhere around a firebreak there was the split in the "loop" portion of the trail. There are lots of white trail markers; it would be hard to get lost. We took the loop clockwise. Here there were some small bridges to cross, a rather dense forest of blooming mountain laurel, and Lake Jocassee soon comes into view. At the end of the peninsula where the trail curves sharply around to the right, there is a wide rock landing, and a small sand beach (see photo). This was a big hit with the kids. Next time we'll come better prepared with swim suits and towels, though!

Finishing out the loop, we passed a sign explaining the history of this man-made lake, and a small bench. We got back to the parking lot around noon and had a picnic lunch. There is also a 1-mile loop nature trail on the other side of the park, but it started to rain and we didn't have time to do that one.