Blazing Trails

It's easy to soak in nature here in Charlotte while still maintaining social distancing regulations! We are constantly finding new trails to explore and have a handful on our bucket list before this contract is up. Here are a few of the best!

The Four-Mile Creek Greenway is a gem running through the south part of Charlotte. After street parking, we hopped onto what I assume was the main entrance and made it a good mile or so before turning around for lunch. The majority of the trail is a boardwalk, winding through a variety of terrain from marshlands to almost skyscraper-level trees! Every turn in the path felt like we were walking into a different set for Jurassic Park!

It's such an easy trail for a casual stroll, but we saw a lot of runners and people on bikes. The boardwalk is also conveniently wide enough to maintain a safe distance from everyone else, not to mention benches along the way to take a break and enjoy the scenery. Definitely will be returning and see if we can work our way up to the full four miles! Teddy and I are both too out of shape for that right now.

We visited the Reedy Creek Park the next day, a huge family property that's part nature center, part fishing pond, part hiking trails, and part "castle ruins." It doesn't get more amazing than that! The hiking trails are even ranked by difficulty if you're up for an easy walk or want a bit of a challenge. At one point, I had to pull up the GPS on my phone to find the Robinson Rock House Ruins which was roughly a twenty minute walk from where we parked. Apparently, the house had belonged to a blacksmith family during the colonial period. Around the back of the 'house' is a giant, fallen tree that Teddy tried desperately to climb. Definitely a neat place for a photo shoot!

Our next stop was Big Rock Nature Preserve, a hidden treasure smack-dab in the middle of an HOA neighborhood! I literally drove right past the sign, thinking I had entered the address incorrectly. We embarked onto the trail head and less than a minute later turned up on some of the biggest rocks I've ever seen! People were climbing on top and through openings in between. There were other giant rocks peppering the area where people had set down blankets for a picnic. Teddy ignored the boulders around us and dragged me down a trail to play in the creek instead. The terrain is a little bit more rough because the park overlooks a hill, but overall a very family-friendly site!

Today we hit the trail and made a splash at Latta Nature Preserve, another gorgeous piece of historic land just 30 minutes north of Charlotte. I should have known better than to visit on a Sunday afternoon, but we were both getting so stir crazy! Twice we were nudged out of our spots by the lake, but still got plenty of fresh air. This is another great place for a family outing as we saw plenty of people having picnics, chilling in hammocks, and playing in the lake. There were even entry points for kayaking and horseback riding trails. Once things in the state start to open up again, we plan to come back and check out the raptor center (birds, not dinosaurs) and walk around the plantation on-site since both were closed off.

It's so important to get outside and take care of your mental health, quarantine or not. Share your favorite hiking trails and nature centers with me! Maybe Teddy and I will get to check them out someday!

Stay safe! Stay curious!

Emma Grace and Teddy