Pilot Mountain / Breaks Interstate Park

Wilmington, NC to Red River Gorge, KY | Visiting Pilot Mountain State Park | Visiting Breaks Interstate Park | June 2025

After our time in Wilmington, we had 4 days to travel to Curtis’ next assignment in central Illinois. We planned a new route, chose a few attractions to visit along the way, then packed up the van and prepared for the drive. On our first day of the trip, we drove from Wilmington to the Appalachians in Virginia, and took interstates most of the way. For today’s fun stop, we finally decided to visit Pilot Mountain State Park, which we had driven by a few times while traveling to and from Wilmington but had never stopped, even though it’s quite a prominent landmark just off the road. We exited US-52 and drove the park road all the way up to the summit parking lot.

Usually when we leave Wilmington in the summer months, we are eagerly anticipating arriving in the mountains (usually the Blue Ridge) and feeling that first cool wave of mountain air. Unfortunately this peak didn’t give off the same feeling — it still felt pretty hot in the sun. I packed up our snacks, and we made our way down to a picnic table in the shade.

After we were finished snacking, we made our way back up to the parking lot, and walked around to the different lookout points. Unfortunately it was a pretty hazy day so visibility wasn’t great, but we were at least able to see Hanging Rock, another state park that we visited during our first trip to Wilmington in 2022. While Pilot Mountain is prominent enough for Curtis’ hiking challenge, unfortunately you can’t actually hike up to the peak itself, so this stop did nothing for his goal and simply served as a nice spot to have lunch.

We got back on the road and entered Virginia, and for the first time I-77 was completely clear of clouds so we could enjoy the views! Traffic was pretty bad though, so we found an alternate route and exited the interstate early in order to reach tonight’s campground. We had three counties in VA that we were determined to get, and there was one campground that was on our way and only charged $5/night. We arrived at Raven Cliff Campground and found only one other was camped here tonight. Curtis went on a little hike to a peak and the ruins of Raven Cliff furnace (which required fording a river since the bridge was out from Hurricane Helene) while Charlotte and I hung out at the campsite and made dinner.

On our second day of travel, we planned to drive from Raven Cliff Campground to Red River Gorge in Kentucky, one of our favorite spots we’ve found throughout all our drives between NC and the Midwest. We started the day by checking off a few more Virginia counties, and eventually ended up in Breaks Interstate Park right on the VA/KY state line. We paid the small admission fee, then drove to one of the trailhead lots for a picnic lunch and a walk. We started with lunch, but right as we were wrapping up it began to rain. Curtis decided to brave the weather and hike to the Tower Tunnel lookout anyway while Charlotte and I hid in the van. When he returned, the rain let up, so we all walked up the road to the next lookout together. Since there were a lot of steps here, Curtis and I took turns walking down to the Clinchfield overlook, and enjoyed the views of the river winding through the mountains, and the mountain laurels along the trail. After that, we got back in the van and entered into Kentucky.

We entered a few new KY counties as we drove, but as always it seems like there’s still so many to go. On our way to Red River Gorge, we made a brief stop at Middle Creek National Battlefield, which isn’t actually part of the national park service, but it felt wrong to drive by without checking first. Overall, it wasn’t a bad route across Eastern Kentucky, and we made it to Red River Gorge in the late afternoon. We ended up parking for the night at the exact same spot off of Tunnel Ridge Road where we had stayed last year, though this time we shared the small lot with some other campers. We took a little walk down to the nearest scenic overlook to end the night, and took shelter in the van when the promised storms finally arrived.