Girl Scouts, Hornets' Nest Council Trail

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · River/Creek · Spring · Wildflowers · Wildlife

This 2.2-mile singletrack natural surface trail that parallels the South Yadkin River. The trail is located on the Girl Scouts’ Dale Earnhardt Environmental Leadership Campus at Oak Springs, a regional destination for Girl Scouts, so please stay on the trail. The trail is managed by the Catawba Lands Conservancy which also permanently protects nearly 360-acres along the South Yadkin River.

The trail is intermediate level and open to hikers and mountains bikers. There are some steep climbs over a short distance with long downhill runs. There is one particularly steep climb about a quarter-mile in that leads up to a bluff overlooking the river below. At the end of the trail is a small rock outcropping which makes a great place to stop and watch the river before heading back. There are no technical features or structures on the trail, except for some short bridges. The trail is great and makes for a fun, fast, smooth ride, trail run, or hike.

Nature enthusiasts will delight in this trail, which careens through a State Significant Natural Heritage Site, an area of special biodiversity importance identified by the NC Natural Heritage Program. The intent of the program is to protect habitat for rare plant and animal species. During the winter there is a large floodplain swamp which provides habitat for migrating waterfowl and in the spring, the hills sides erupt with colorful wildflowers.

The trail really shines in the spring when a number of spring ephemeral wildflowers emerge. Some of the highlights include Trilliums, Trout lillies, Foamflowers, Bloodroots, Meadow-roe, and Maiden-hair ferns.