Ninety Six NHS / Black Rock Mountain
Driving from Southport to Nantahala National Forest NC | Kayaking & Camping on the Saluda River in SC | Visiting Ninety Six National Historic Site | Hiking in Black Rock Mountain State Park, GA | Camping in Nantahala National Forest | March 2026
Curtis’ work in Southport wrapped up before noon on a Thursday, and it took us less than 30 minutes to finish packing the van, eat a quick lunch of leftovers, and run an errand before hitting the road. We were more than ready to leave this area and to enjoy a couple of days in the mountains before Curtis’ next assignment began in the Midwest! We had 4 days to make the drive, and were looking at sunny, warmer than average weather; hopefully perfect for the hikes that we wanted to do.
Since we only had half a day for our first day of the trip, we made the 5 hour drive with only one stop for dinner. We chose to start our drive by going West into South Carolina and drive over halfway across the state to Newbury, setting ourselves up to be close to our first activity the next morning. As is typical for our way of travel, we had made some plans beforehand of where we wanted to go, hike, and sleep, but once on our way some of those plans go out the window and we end up making some on the fly decisions. In this case, Curtis had planned out an excellent itinerary, however that was assuming we had all day Thursday to travel, plus maybe another extra day, which we ended up losing. And so as we drove, I searched iOverlander for free places to stay that were sort of on our way and not in a Walmart parking lot.
We ended up finding the perfect place to stay for the night in the early evening: a boat ramp on the Saluda River, just a few miles off the highway we were taking. When we arrived, Curtis suggested we get the kayak out and go for a little paddle as a way to get some exercise, and so we broke out the kayak for the first time in quite a while and got it all set up. I can’t even remember the last time we used it, but I know it was sometime when we still had Charlotte, and honestly I had been dreading the day we would use it again without her sitting between us, looking adorable in her little life jacket. It was probably for the better that it happened spontaneously, on a seemingly insignificant stretch of a river that hadn’t been on my radar. And now that we’ve gotten that ‘first without her’ out of the way, hopefully it won’t be so hard in the future…though I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at or think about our kayak and not picture Charlotte in her life jacket.
Besides all the emotions that came with the paddle, it was a lovely evening on the water. We paddled upstream first, going under the bridge and following the curves of the river for about two thirds of a mile. We enjoyed the peace and quiet, the birds, and the signs of spring all around us. When it came time to turn around, we mostly just sat and let the river guide us right back to where we started. There was one other boater and some people fishing, but they all left around dusk and we enjoyed a quiet night here. The best part was not having to wake up to a 5am alarm for the first time in several weeks!
The next morning, we drove over to our first stop of the day, a return to Ninety Six National Historic Site. We had visited here almost exactly 10 years prior (just a month off!) and to be honest, our main motivation for coming was to get the special 250 NPS stamp, but it also made for a very pleasant walk to start our day off right. We walked around the loop (counterclockwise, which turned out to be backwards, whoops!) and read the signs, and reminisced on the last time we were here. After a stop at the visitor center, we were back on the road.
Visiting Ninety Six NHS in April 2016
Our next order of business was to grab enough food to get us through the weekend, then we continued West across the Savannah river into Georgia, just to get a new state for the year! Here we were also able to enter into 4 new counties as we made our way up to the mountains. Curtis’ main request for this trip was to hike 2 mountains, and the first one he had chosen was Black Rock Mountain, conveniently located in a state park right off the highway with an easy trail that we could hike together.
Once we made it to the trailhead, we had some snacks, paid the day use fee, then prepped for a hike. The park also happened to have a road that went up to near the top, but we wanted to hike and the trail really wasn’t that difficult. The hardest part was probably that we were coming from sea level the day before! The trail to the peak was a loop which we started taking clockwise, but ended up returning the way we came because we heard the other way was longer and less scenic. The best view of the hike came a little before the summit at Tennessee Rock Lookout, which you could supposedly see 3 states from the peak (not counting Georgia, the one you’re in) however, it was hazy today with smoke from prescribed burns, so I doubt we could see that far. After enjoying the lookout, we completed the hike to the peak before turning around and returning to the van.
Curtis had a phone call to take after that, so we drove up to the visitor center, got a stamp and some postcards, then found a picnic table to hang out at for a while. While he talked, I looked ahead at our camping options. Curtis’ plan had been to continue heading North and take a (questionable) forest road to a trailhead for the Appalachian Trail and possibly camp there, then do more hiking the next day. However, I wasn’t certain about the road, and also had to look at our plans a little more practically: After today, we had two and a half more days with a lot of ground to cover, if we wanted to stick to our route and get lots of new counties, which we did. And taking a forest road where we’d have to drive 15 mph wouldn’t exactly be as productive as we needed. And so I once again searched the map for a new idea, and ended up finding a free campground in the national forest that wasn’t too far from the main highway. I presented the idea to Curtis, and while he was disappointed to miss out on some of the hikes he had starred, he knew it was probably the smarter idea for this trip, and thankfully he also still had another peak saved that we could hike the next morning.
And so we got back on the road for one more hour, driving through the Georgia mountains and into North Carolina once again where we ended up at Huskins Campground, a free, first come-first served site in Nantahala National Forest. It was a small loop with dispersed sites spread around and had a bit of trash left behind, but we found a site and made ourselves at home for the night. It wasn’t too busy, and we had the sound of a babbling brook nearby to drown out the sounds from other campers (it also helped with washing dishes since our van was still winterized and we weren’t carrying our usual 20 gallons of water!)
