Whiteside Mountain, Highlands, NC

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
11/26/2022	2.2 miles	1 hour 50 minutes	476'	1.5	921.4

Parking: 

• See 100 Favorite Trails map. $3 parking fee per car.

Maps:

• Gaia GPS 
• 100 Favorite Trails of the Carolinas and the Blue Ridge (for directions)

Directions:

• See 100 Favorite Trails map

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges:

• 100 Favorite Trails Challenge

Glen's ankle is still sore, but he wanted to hike. We decided to head out to Highlands where we could do between 1-3 short hikes depending on how he felt. We had a relaxed morning and then headed out to hike. Our first hike was at Whiteside Mountain. I've done this hike before with the CMC, but Glen was in NY at the time, so he hadn't done it before. The parking lot was kind of crazy, but we found a spot. There is a self-service station to pay your parking fee. I paid my fee, but no one else seemed to be paying. I forgot to bring cheese for Krumm. Oops. There were a ton of dogs on the trail. Luckily all were friendly, and we had some good greetings. The trail was crowded. We hiked the loop counterclockwise, so you get the tricky footing on the uphill, and the easy footing on the downhill. This is what we prefer. We did see some people coming down the tricky footing way and slipping.

Whiteside Mountain is a pluton. There are good views from the summit of pluton cliffs. The last time I hiked this, November of last year, we had zero views due to fog, so it was nice to see something this year. We even saw a rock climber's rope. We couldn't see the climber, who must have been straight down the cliff. Peregrine falcons can be seen in the area, but today all we saw were turkey vultures.