Rendezvous Mountain Fire Tower

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/2/2024	6.5 miles	2 hours 45 minutes	843'	2.4 mph	122.2 miles

Parking: 

• End of Wyatt Road in Miller's Creek, NC. This is a good condition gravel road. Plenty of parking at the trailhead.

Map:

• Gai Gps app
• Rendezvous_Map.pdf (ncesf.org)

Directions:

• At parking lot, follow the forest road behind the right-hand gate to follow Mountain Ridge Trail. Continue following the main road to the fire tower. There is a split in the road - keep left. But use the gaia app to stay on the correct trail.

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges:

• Lookout Tower Challenge - Rendezvous Mountain

We chose a moderate hike for today. The CMC's hike description is to take the Mountain Ridge Trail - which isn't really a trail, but more of a forest service road. We did see a sign that in 2022 the park changed ownership and is now a state park as opposed to being owned by the forest service. The park map is not very helpful for this hike. We used gaia. The navigation is pretty straightforward, but there are a couple splits in the trail. This hike is entirely along a forest service road. That made for some easier footing. For half the hike, we were hiking on packed leaves and pine needles on top of gravel. It was really pleasant, and the hike smelled like pine and warming up earth. This hike is cruisy - rolling hills and you don't have to stare at the ground for foot placement. It has some good winter views. I would recommend hiking it in late fall to early spring, as a lot of it is exposed, so it could get quite hot in the summer. There was a chain across the steps to the fire tower, so we didn't climb it. There still is a view from the base of the tower. We didn't see anyone on our hike.

Take the road behind the trail on the right

This map doesn't cover the whole trail either.

Cruising. Just a pleasant hike. 

We passed this on the left

There was a large area of daffodils.
After seeing a cemetery on our way back, I assume there was a homestead here.

Approaching the tower

The tower was built by the CCC in 1936

View from the base of the fire tower.

A small cemetery near the daffodils.
One of the gravestones is for a confederate soldier.

Hard to see, but here are the bunches of daffodils.

Coltsfoot