Corn Mill Shoals west loop, Dupont State Recreational Forest

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/3/2025	4.8 miles	2 hours 19 minutes	344'	2.1 mph	366.6

Parking: 

• Corn Mill Shoals parking area

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• Pisgah Map Co. Dupont State Recreational Forest (copyright 2019)
• N.C. Forest Service: DuPont State Recretional Forest Map -- 2025

Directions:

• Face paved Cascade Lake Road and turn right. Walk a short distance to the trail on the right. Take the Wilkie Trail. Turn right onto Micajah Trail. Turn right onto Rock Quarry Road and hike to where it ends at paved Cascade Lake Road. Turn around. Take Rock Quarry Road, passing the Micajah Trail on the left. Take a short unnamed spur trail to the right which leads to rock cliffs. At the cliffs, turn back and turn right onto Rock Quarry Road. At a 4-way intersection, turn right onto Rock Quarry Road. Hike to the park boundary (purple rock). Turn around and hike back. Stay straight on the Wilkie Trail (also called Buck Creek Road). At a sharp turn, go straight a short way on an unmarked spur trail to the park boundary. Turn back around. Turn right to continue on the Wilkie Trail (also called the Micajah Trail). Turn right onto the Wilkie Trail where the Micajah trail leads to the left. At paved Cascade Lake Road, turn left to return to the parking area.

Back to Dupont to do a hike from the Corn Mill Shoals parking area. We've done most of this hike before, but we hadn't hiked to the end of Rock Quarry Road. There were several mountain bikers at the trailhead, but we only encountered one on our hike. Maybe the others were riding on the other side of the road. We didn't see any other hikers.

Today's hike also had discrepancies between Pisgah Map Co.'s map, the trail, and Gaia. Navigation was easy, but the trail names are not consistent. We started out on the Wilkie Trail. The trail has many pine trees, and sometimes the trail is on solid rock. This reminded us of hiking at Harriman State Park, where you hike across long rock slabs in some areas. It made us both miss our hiking at Harriman.

At the first intersection, was our first map discrepancy. Pisgah Map Co. shows the Wilkie Trail ending here, and the Micajah Trail going both to the left and the right. The trail signs show the Wilkie Trail continuing to the left, and the Micajah Trail only going to the right. We turned right onto the Micajah Trail. Once we were on the Micajah Trail, we saw signs of a controlled burn, that ended up being for the whole inside of the loop we hiked. I am very curious about how they do controlled burns. The fire for the most part didn't cross the trail. It was a clear demarcation. How do they do that? How do they wet non-burn areas precisely? Is the small trail enough of a break to prevent the fire from crossing the trail?

We turned right onto Rock Quarry Road. Although most people don't like hiking on roads, I found it pretty with tall pine trees along it. We turned around at Cascade Lake Road and continued on Rock Quarry Road past the Micajah Trail. We took a short unnamed spur trail to the right. We have taken it before. It's a beautiful little area with rock cliffs. I can't remember if we've seen rock climbers there before, but it looks like a rock climbing area. Back on the Rock Quarry Trail, we continued to the next intersection where there were more map discrepencies.

Pisgah Map Co. shows it as the intersection of Rock Quarry Road (2 ways), Buckhorn Creek Road, and Buck Ridge Road. It appears Buckhorn Creek Road and Buck Ridge Road are now called Wilkie Trail (the same trail we started out on). We turned right to continue on Rock Quarry Road. We hadn't taken this spur trail section before. The road started out as covered in leaves but got a little rockier near the park boundary. We encountered two chained off gates, both a little before the park boundary. The second boundary has a large purple rock and a no trespassing sign (facing Dupont oddly). Glen hiked a tiny bit further to see if there was a sign where Gaia shows the park boundary, but he found none, so I'm guessing its at the purple rock.  We continued back to the trail intersection.

From there we kept straight (not right) on the Wilkie Trail (shown as Buck Ridge Road on Pisgah Map Co's map). We took another spur trail at a sharp switchback. Gaia shows a trail there going to the park boundary. It crosses a field. There's a large blowdown at the park boundary, where we turned around.

Back at the intersection, we continued on the Wilkie Trail (shown as the Micajah Trail on Pisgah Map Co's map). On this section there is a nice place to sit on a rock slab and have a picnic. It was a bit chilly today and I didn't have my sit pad on me, so we continued on. I'm wondering if all of these rock slabs on this hike are granite plutons.

We turned right at the intersection of the Wilkie Trail and the Micajah Trail (the map & trail agree here) to head back to the trailhead.

Starting out on the Wilkie Trail

There were many pines on this hike.

The trail is up a solid rock. 
This hike reminds us of Harriman State Park, which also has trails up rock slopes.

Reminding us so much of Harriman State Park.

Turning right onto the Micajah Trail.

Signs of a controlled burn on the left side of the trail.
From what we saw, a controlled burn was done inside the whole loop we did.

This is the one stream crossing (unnamed on the map).
It's an easy rock hop.

Approaching the end of the Micajah Trail at Rock Quarry Road.

Turning right onto Rock Quarry Road

Beautiful pines.

Reaching Cascade Lake Road. I'm not sure how legal it is to park here.
There is a sign saying don't block the gate, and the car there wasn't.

Hiking along Rock Quarry Road

What are these large boulders from?
This is right before the spur trail to the cliffs.

The unmarked spur trail is straight ahead, where the sign shows the trail curving to the left.

We've hiked up this spur trail before.
It's very pretty. Glen thinks it's a rock climbing area.

Cliffs along the spur trail.

More cliffs along the spur trail.

Grey reindeer lichen

More cliffs at the end of the spur trail.

Back on Rock Quarry Road.

Continuing to see the burn inside the loop.

The next map inconsistency.
Pisgah Map Co. shows this as the intersection of Rock Quarry Road (2 directions)
Buckhorn Creek Road, and Buck Ridge Road.
We turned right to stay on Rock Quarry Road.

After the turn there is a Y intersection.
The trail on the right side isn't marked & isn't on any map.
Rock Quarry Road is the main trail on the left.

A wide leafy road.

A bit of a winter mountain view.

We came across this wire across the trail. 
Gaia showed it wasn't quite the end of Dupont property, so we continued on.

A chain across the trail & a private property sign.
At this point we turned around. 
Gaia does show a trail continuing west to Rich Mountain Road.

A meadow between the two chained areas.

Back at this intersection. We stayed straight on the Wilkie Trail 
(called Buck Ridge Road on Pisgah Map Co's map)

More charred forest.

The Wilkie Trail makes a hairpin turn here.
Pisgah Map Co shows this as the intersection of Buck Ridge Road & Micajah Trail
Gaia shows a short spur trail here, which we took before continuing on.

Crossing a meadow.

A clump of down trees approximately at the park boundary.

Krumm enjoying the meadow.

Turning right onto the Wilkie (or Micajah) Trail.

More solid rock trail.

Approaching a view. Again, this reminds us of Harriman.

A great place for a picnic in warmer weather.

Turning right to stay on the Wilkie Trail to return to the trailhead.

 

Lake Imaging Loop, Dupont State Recreational Forest

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/1/2025	3.7 miles	1 hour 47 minutes	323'	2.1 mph	361.8

Parking: 

• Lake Imaging Parking Area

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• Pisgah Map Co. Dupont State Recreational Forest (copyright 2019)
• N.C. Forest Service: DuPont State Recretional Forest Map -- 2025

Directions:

• Take Lake Imaging Road from the parking area. Keep straight where the Ridgeline Trail leaves to the left. Pass Lake Imaging on the right. Turn left onto Jim Branch Trail. At the intersection of the Jim Branch Trail and Isaac Heath Trail, stay straight on the Jim Branch Trail until it dead ends at Buck Forest Road. Turn around and hike back to the Isaac Heath Trail. Turn left onto the Isaac Heath Trail. This appears to turn into the Locus Trail. Follow the Locust Trail until it ends at Lake Imaging Road. Turn right (twice) to take Lake Imaging Road back to the parking area.

Although it feels like we've done a lot of hiking at Dupont, there really are so many areas we haven't explored. We've never done a hike from the Lake Imaging parking lot. We came up with a short loop hike. Navigation was easy, but there were several discrepancies between Gaia, Pisgah Map Co, and the actual trail. I was intending to do a hike with no lake (Pisgah Map Co. doesn't show a lake), but yes, Lake Imaging does exist, and our trail passes right by it. Poor Krumm - no swimming for him. Taking notes on it though as a future place to swim him. 

The parking lot wasn't very crowded. This area seems to mostly be used by mountain bikers. Many passed us on the trail. All were polite except for one young girl who didn't slow down for us - I struggled to get Krumm off the trail before she zoomed by. We only ran into one trail runner and one family of hikers. Lake Imaging is a tiny 1-acre lake with signs of fishing activity. It has a picnic shelter as well as a bench on one side of the lake. We headed up Jim Branch Trail. It's an easy trail with gentle undulations - it feels very much like a mountain biking trail. The terrain was good, and I thought the trail was very pretty with lots of pine trees and the occasional distant mountain view. We hiked to the end of the trail, then turned around and hiked back to the intersection with the Isaac Heath Trail. So, Gaia shows that the Isaac Heath Trail also goes to the northeast of the Jim Branch Trail. It doesn't. Pisgah Map Co. doesn't show it, and at the location, you could see the remnants of a trail, but obviously not maintained (down trees all over it). 

Continuing southwest on the Isaac Heath Trail, Pisgah Map Co shows a trail heading south at the intersection of the Locust Trail and the Isaac Heath Trail. Gaia shows it too as a 0.2-mile spur trail. Again, this looks like an old, abandoned trail. We could see it, but logs crossed its path - definitely not maintained. Also, Pisgah Map Co. shows that the Isaac Heath Trail turns into the Locust Trail at that point. Gaia (and the NC Forest Service map) still calls it the Isaac Heath Trail, and we didn't see a sign saying it was called the Locust Trail. 

Continuing on to Lake Imaging Road - we thought about adding on the Hilltop Loop Trail, but the Grassy Creek Bridge is out, and we weren't 100% positive we could hike the whole loop. Pisgah Map Co. doesn't show the location of the bridge. A sign at the trailhead said it's at the intersection of Lake Imaging Road and Buck Forest Road. I feel like it's not just the bridge that is closed, but areas around the bridge as well. I've read that work on the bridge will start in early 2026.

Hiking back on Lake Imaging Road - it's actually a trail, not a gravel road. There are some sections with erosion from mountain bikes presumably - closer to the trailhead. But otherwise, a nice trail too.

We really enjoyed this hike. Less busy than the trails to waterfalls but be warned there is a lot of mountain bike traffic.

Trailhead kiosk

The beginning of Lake Imaging Road is actually a road.

Picnic area at tiny Lake Imaging

Lake Imaging

Skirting around Lake Imaging

Leaving Lake Imaging Trail and heading up Jim Branch Trail

A brief rocky path, but its smooth terrain after this.

Winter mountain views

Krumm

Pretty pine forests on Jim Branch Trail.

Staying on Jim Branch Trail to the end. We'll come right back to this intersection.

Gaia shows this as the continuation of the Isaac Heath Trail
to the northeast. It no longer looks maintained & isn't on
the Pisgah Map Co.'s map.

We took the Jim Branch Trail to the end, where it intersects with the Buck Forest Rd.

Buck Forest Road

We hiked back to the intersection of Jim Branch Trail and Isaac Heath Trail.

Signs that horses use this trail too.

Isaac Heath Trail

We were looking for this spur trail.

This is it. Obviously not maintained.

More mountain views.

The start of the Hilltop Trail. We'll save this for another day. 
Turning onto Lake Imaging Trail.

Not bad for a "road"

Hard to see, but erosion on parts of this trail.

We let him get his feet wet at the stream crossing (no water crossing needed).

Location of the bridge closure - the box is kind of big though - so still unclear what parts of the trail are open.