This park, southeast of Greensboro is one of our new favorites.
The Company Mill Preserve Trail is almost 6 miles out and back. You can park at the main park itself or at the other end on Company Mill Rd, but the parking lot there is small.
Hagan Stone Park has several trails, a campground, a pond with fishing, and a wonderful aquatic center. If trails aren’t your thing, the park has a nice road with sidewalks for walking as well. All Trails has a nice page for the hikes available.
The Chatfield Trail is relatively flat but can get rather muddy after steady rains.
The School House trail is short and we have included it as an off shoot while on the Chatfield trail. This would be a great hike with little ones.
There are a few places along Deep River near Franklinville that we discovered.
One is near Riverside Park. the park itself has a nice swimming are and apparently it fills up on weekends. We just swam there for a minute because I wanted to get some drone shots of some ruins downstream.
When the summer heat makes taking a hike a dangerous, we like to find trails that allow us to jump in and cool. This page will be some of our favorite spots. Since we live in High Point, most spots will within easy driving distance.
Instead of heading up the hill to Hanging Rock, if you head down to the Dan River Launch area and take the River Bluffs Trail you eventually come across this wonderful swimming hole. It tends to be a little crowded on weekends and parking can be tight, but its wonderful during the week.
Parts of the river are deep and suitable for swimming, others are shallow and perfect for some fetch.
For a moment, The Pupsicle was the highest dog in Virginia.
Every now and then we like to take what we consider grand-adventure hikes, a hike that takes all day and covers some magnificent ground. The hike to Mt Rogers was one of our favorites. For us, the hike started in Grayson Highlands State Park and ended up being around 9 miles. The hike is quite popular so I’d recommend arriving early.
The hike crossed the Appalachian Trail before heading through the forest and up to the summit.
Along this hike we got to meet several characters, both two-legged and four-legged. I think the vistas we enjoyed along then way made this a truly epic hike and I’d recommend it for adventurous folks and pups that are experienced hikers and in pretty good shape. Here’s a link to the All Trails page.
Far and away Sophie’s favorite campground is 4 Paws Campground and Dog Resort. This is a little slice of doggie heaven located near Rutherfordton, NC. What’s not to love? A campground just for dogs and humans that don’t think its crazy to go a dog campground. The kingdom is a wonderfully social campground, both for the dogs and humans. They have several off leash areas, a pond, an agility area, and a bath house for cleaning up before you head back to the trailer. Since we have a trailer we haven’t tried the other options, but there are cabins, trailers, and even a yurt available for the those without an RV.
Sophie makes new best friends forever each time she visits 4 Paws.
4 Paws theme weekends are a lot of fun; we’ve hunted Easter eggs, cheered for the Kentucky Derby, had brats for Octoberfest, and won a chili cook-off, all with a campfire at the end of the day and The Pupsicle by our side. Doesn’t get any better than that.
Lake Lure is just up the road, and a wonderful spot for a grand adventure.
If you’re looking for a dog friendly get away, you really need to give 4 Paws Kingdom a try, we’ve been camping here since 2013 and it gets better every year.
For us there are two types of camping trips, with the grand children and without. When we take them we like to go to family campgrounds and the Jellystone Campgrounds are perfect for the kids. One of favorites is Jellystone Golden Valley in Bostic, NC. The campground is relatively new and they are expanding and improving every time we go.
Halloween in Golden Valley
The campground is made with families in mind and they have several different options for different camping types, from tents, to RV sites, to cabins and lodges. Since we have a travel trailer we’ve only used the RV sites, the cabins get rave reviews from folks we’ve spoken to. The campground is large and hilly so a golf cart is recommended. With themes most weekends and many crafts and other activities for the kids our grands keep plenty busy certainly sleep well.
The water park at Golden Valley
The water park is on the top of the fun list for the kids, but troth told, I think we all have a great time there.
The dog park is pretty small but they have added some hiking trails and Sophie loves hitting the trails and getting her feet wet in the stream that runs along the campsites as well as some quality time in the pond.
We have camped at Disney World’s Fort Wilderness before, but that time we brought the kids and the grand kids. When new visited in early December it was myself, Elizabeth, and Sophie. Taking the kids is a lot of fun, but the just us was much more relaxing. We had a wonderful trip, but this blog is about The Pupsicle, so I’ll focus on aspects that affected her.
In order to camp in early December we made reservations in January of the same year. I’m sure you could wait a little longer, but I wouldn’t make reservations much later. We asked for a site near the dog park when the reservation was made and then later, around October, I called and spoke with the reservations folks and reiterated our request. While checking in we again asked for a spot near the dog park and they were most accomodating by giving us a site in the 500 loop right across from the dog park. The site was perfect and no more than a 5 minute walk to get to the dog park.
Camp Site in the 500 Loop
We found that Sophie was welcome in most places, The Trading Posts, around the marina, even near the stables. I would say the campground is certainly dog friendly. Many campers had a dogs, as with most campgrounds and they got along well.
Sophie wishing others played disc.
The dog park itself was a pretty good size and well kept. There was one side for small dogs and another, larger side for larger dogs. As with most dog parks we had pretty luck with the other owners and only had one instance where some more aggressive dogs were in the park, so we just went next door and were fine.
The Pupsicle and her new BFF.
We could hear the Magic Kingdom fireworks in the evening but it wasn’t loud enough to cause any issue. The horse drawn carriage came through our loop regularly in the evening which was nice. It was certainly easy to see why, most campgrounds were decorated for Christmas. Many quite extensively.
The Piedmont Environmental Center is one of our favorite places for a local hike. There are eleven miles of foot trails and the Bicentennial Greenway pass through 376 acres of beautiful hardwood and pine forests and lakeside habitats with many hiking option that can be mixed and matched for just about every level of hiking skill.
Dogs are welcome on the trails but must be kept on a leash. Many critters call the PEC home so you’ll really want to give them their space. We’ve seen deer, beaver, black snakes, ground hogs, and just about every local bird you can think of. I have not seen any copper heads personally, but I am quite sure they are around so it’s a good idea to keep the pup on a close leash. The city doesn’t allow pets in High Point City Lake since it the city’s water supply.
We usually take the Lakeshore Trail with Raccoon Run add on and it takes maybe an hour to make the loop. I’d say it’s moderate on the intensity list but there are a couple of ways to shorten your trek if you’re getting tired.
The trails are:
Bill Favor Lakeshore Trail (white marker) – 1.8 miles
Fiddlehead Trail (yellow marker) – .2 miles
Pine Thicket Trail (red marker) – .2 miles
Dogwood Trail (orange marker) – .4 miles
Chickadee Trail (green marker) – .3 miles
Raccoon Run Trail (blue marker) – .6 miles
Wildflower Trail (purple marker) – .4 miles
Along with hiking the PEC has several other offerings to keep folks busy:
6.6 miles of natural trails and access to the Bicentennial Greenway
Classroom
Educational classes for all ages, school groups and individual programs
North Carolina Mapscape – 70 by 30 foot walk-on topographic relief map
Small animal exhibit.
The PEC building and restroom access hours are – Sunday-Saturday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and the Trail Hours are sunrise to sunset.
Adventures With Sophie 