Stone Mountain (DuPont) Hike Route Map

The approximate track of my hike up Stone Mountain from Sky Valley Road, in DuPont State Forest, depicted a la Google Earth...

Stone Mountain (DuPont) Hike Route Map

The approximate track of my hike up Stone Mountain, in DuPont State Forest, from Sky Valley Road...

Rocky Ridge South Trailhead (Sky Valley Road)

The parking area off Sky Valley Road is small but on this 20-degree morning I didn't have to fight for a space...

Rocky Ridge Trail

The Rocky Ridge Trail begins just beyond this cable gate...

Rocky Ridge Trail

As with most trails in DuPont State Forest, the Rocky Ridge Trail was wide and easy to follow...

Rocky Ridge Trail

The rhododendron were tightly curled against the cold...

Rocky Ridge-Stone Mountain Trail Junction

4/10 of a mile in I arrived at a 'Y' intersection with the Rocky Ridge Trail continuing left and my route, the Stone Mountain Trail, headed right...

Stone Mountain Trail

The early morning sun shines in the pines above...

Stone Mountain-Switchback Trail Junction

Within about another quarter mile I came to a second split. I'd be turning left to continue on the Stone Mountain Trail while the Switchback Trail keeps going straight ahead...

Stone Mountain Trail

Up to this point the route had been fairly flat. Past the Switchback Trail, however, the climb started and wouldn't really let up until the top...

Stone Mountain Trail

The warming sun on my back and the constant incline helped to keep me nice and toasty despite the chilly morning air...

Stone Mountain Trail

The higher I got the more broken the terrain underfoot became...this was one of the rougher spots...

Stone Mountain Trail

The morning sun casts skeletal tree shadows across the trail...

Stone Mountain Trail

After a while the trail leveled out a bit as it swung around to the shadowed side of the ridge...

Stone Mountain Trail

I knew I was nearing the summit when I entered this large clearing. My trail notes stated it might be hard to follow the trail through this section but I noticed no such difficulty...

Stone Mountain Trail

The Great Balsams to the north just barely manage to poke their way above the trees. The DuPont website overstates this view a bit, in fact I'm sure in the summer the range is all but obscured...

Stone Mountain Trail

Above the clearing the trail passes into a pleasant mixed forest of young hardwoods and pines...

Stone Mountain Trail

A few minutes above the clearing I passed this collection of huge boulders strewn across the forest floor...

Stone Mountain Trail

Does this shot look COLD? It was...

Stone Mountain Trail

The last tenth of a mile or so to the top is quite steep and passes through a dense tangle of rhododendron...

Stone Mountain Trail

Where the sun hadn't reached yet there was a light frosting of snow covering the ground...

Stone Mountain Trail

Breaking free of the rhododendron into the welcome sunshine of Stone Mountain's summit...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

The summit of Stone Mountain (3,620') is marked by open slabs of rock adorned with this twin-peaked cairn...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

Though trees are scattered across the summit, breaking up the views, the path continues east along the ridge where the real eye candy is found...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

Cunningly camouflaged frozen ground seepage kept me watching my step...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

Only a hundred yards or so east of the summit is a huge open rock slab offering wonderful views across the rest of the State Forest...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

As I continued east along the ridge neighboring, and slightly higher, Pinnacle Mountain made its presence known up ahead. As you can tell by the tower atop it it is outside the State Forest boundaries...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

For a couple hundred yards or so are a series of rock ledges all with generally the same view south from the summit. Unfortunately, this southern exposure meant that any shots taken from them would be directly into the morning sun frustrating my efforts to share the view...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

At the far end of the rocky summit ridge is an outcrop offering a look in the opposite direction of the others atop Stone Mountain. The low, rolling hills bordering the French Broad River Valley stretch away to the high dark summits of the Black Mountain Range some 30 miles away...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

Being as they are nearly twice the height of the peak I was currently standing on, the distant Black Mountains had obviously picked up a bit more snow giving them a slightly frosty look...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

A few tufts of snow sit delicately amongst some pine needles...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

Deciding that I had experienced all that the eastern ridge had to offer, I retraced my steps to the summit...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

Pines, shrubs, grasses, mosses...I'm always amazed by the diversity on these rocky summits...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

The best southern shot I could get from the summit...I'll have to make my next trip up here later in the day...

Stone Mountain Summit - 3,620'

The DuPont website describes a open rock slab on the western end of the summit ridge with some impressive views to the north of the Balsams. The flags marking the route according to the website don't exists anymore and I had a bear of a time finding my way. After figuring the route out I retraced my steps so I could log the route turn by turn so if your planning on going hopefully you'll have an easier time. Here, at the summit cairn, the main trail heads right down the mountain. You can make out a faint trail here going straight ahead between the pines...follow that...

Stone Mountain North Cliff Path

After passing between the pines you come out on top of a ledge a few feet high, drop down and turn right and you'll see two smaller cairns ahead...

Stone Mountain North Cliff Path

After passing the two cairns in the previous shot there are no more trail markers. Head straight ahead entering the woods beneath and to the left of the tall pine in the center of this shot...

Stone Mountain North Cliff Path

Once under the pines you should be able to just make out a path descending ahead...

Stone Mountain North Cliff Path

The faint trail dumps you out into this clearing after a few hundred feet. The ledge in question is just beyond and below the rhododendron in front of me in this shot. From here you have two options...you can swing left around the shrubs but you'll have to pick your way through a nasty thicket of greenbrier or...you can just punch your way through the rhodos and you'll pretty much drop right out at the overlook...

Stone Mountain North Cliffs

Finally breaking out onto the western outcrop after a few painful encounters with some greenbrier vines...

Stone Mountain North Cliffs

The view though, oh the view...facing a completely different direction than the slabs on the other side of the summit, this western outcrop offered an incredible view towards Brevard and the Upper French Broad Valley with the towering wall of the Balsam Range rising beyond...

Stone Mountain North Cliffs

The Great Balsams tower some 4,000 feet above the French Broad Valley below. In the center of the shot, about halfway up the ridge you can just make out the rounded summit of Looking Glass Rock while the 5,722' summit of Mt. Pisgah can be seen to the far right...

Stone Mountain North Cliffs

I'm ever so slowly discovering all the wonders that DuPont State Forest has to offer. Stone Mountain, being my first summit in the forest, took way to long visit and it has certainly whetted my appetite for exploring DuPont farther, though likely not until after the busy summer season has passed. Yet another fabulous day in the mountains....