Back in September of 2019, my boyfriend started working his way through the NC State Park Passport Program. To start, you pick up a “passport” book, visit all of the state parks in the state, and get prizes. I have now visited about 38 of the parks, so I am close to getting my 40 park “grand” prize!
Some of the the state parks can get pretty busy on the weekends, so I’ve tried to visit as many as possible during the week. I took the day off work and visited Mayo River State Park. First I went to the visitor’s center and hiked the 1.8 mile “Mayo Mountain Loop Trail.” The coolest thing I saw was a fallen tree.
My real purpose of visiting this park was to see the waterfall. The section of the park with the waterfall is about 15 minutes north of the main park, almost at the Virginia state line. It’s called the Deshazo Mill Access point.
After walking to the waterfall, I walked upstream to the Virginia border!
After hiking, the day turned into an “Eat Prey Love” sort of day. Eat = eat food; prey = eat meat; love = drink coffee and beer.
I next drove to downtown Madison, NC, which is a cute “hiking” town. I stopped in a coffee shop and ate spicy cheesy chicken soup and drank good local coffee. I ate the soup fast because I didn’t want to be inside a restaurant for very long. I think I inhaled the soup in about 35 seconds, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and then I took my coffee on the road.
Then I drove into Greensboro. I wanted to explore Greensboro because I hadn’t been there in years. To me, Greensboro is a lot like downtown Asheville: it’s a cute downtown with lots of cool street art.
I walked from downtown to a brewery called Oden Brewing Company. No, it’s not named after the allfather Odin, but I still loved the name.
I stopped by Biggby Coffee in Burlington, NC, on the drive home. Biggby Coffee is based in Lansing, MI, my alma mater, so I was excited to see a franchise in North Carolina. I bought half-pound of “Traverse City Cherry” coffee, but here they just call it “Michigan Cherry.”
It was a great day, and I added another state park to my list!