Rendezvous Mountain State Park
Visiting Rendezvous Mountain State Park | Driving, Hiking, & Camping on the Blue Ridge Parkway | August 2026
This morning began with a thick layer of clouds obstructing all the mountains surrounding us, and again we didn’t know how much, if any, of our day would end up being rainy. We decided not to waste any time with visiting our first spot for today, and so after breakfast, we packed up and got back on the road. We drove about a half mile West towards Rendezvous Mountain State Park, which is not quite prominent enough for Curtis’ challenge but it is part of North Carolina’s fire tower peak list. Thankfully NC state parks are free to visit so all it cost us was what the gas and time it took to get there.
And what a journey that was! We knew that the road basically went up the entire mountain and we would only have a short walk at the top. The road started off as a very steep and slightly narrow gravel road that wound up past homes and into the woods. Then, after having driven about 75% of the way up, we suddenly came to a perfectly good paved road which gently delivered us to the parking lot at the visitor center. I’m not sure what surprised us more, the rough ‘neighborhood’ road or the clean, paved road at the top!
We began our visit at the ranger station to get our stamps and chat with the lonely ranger up there. He told us about the hikes in the area, but we didn’t end up doing that much because once you’re already at the top of a mountain, all there really is to do is walk down, which means walking back up. The Talking Trees Trail did look kind of quirky and maybe would have been fun to do if we allotted more time for being here. For today, we just walked up to see the tower, then followed a ridge trail for a little ways just to enjoy the cool morning air. Even if there weren’t thick clouds all around, there wouldn’t have been much of a view here other than what you get in the parking area.
Next, we descended the mountain and then made our way to where we planned to spend the rest of the day: the Blue Ridge Parkway, still one of our favorite roads in the East! We planned to spend the rest of our day doing short hikes and enjoying different lookouts, and camping at the Doughton Campground. We had stayed here almost 3 years ago, and back then there were large sections of the Parkway that were closed, so going to Doughton meant a long detour around the closures, which meant there were hardly any others there. Today, the roads are reopened, and being a weekend at the end of August, it was quite a bit busier. But we didn’t have any trouble finding a place to camp, as usual, and we were so happy to be back here.
When we made it to the parkway, we started driving Northeast towards the campground and recreation area. But, not long after getting on the parkway, we were stopped by a large recently fallen tree. There was a ranger working on clearing it, and some had driven along the grassy shoulder to get around, but we decided to turn around and go the other way and kill some time in that direction before going to our destination for today. It ended up being a good thing for us because this is part of the Parkway that we haven’t driven before, and we were excited to see some new scenery!
Our first stop was at the Lump Mountain Overlook, where we went for a short hike up to the ‘peak’, and then hung out in our van, listening to our audiobook and having lunch. The clouds would occasionally give us peeks of the view, but for the most part we were just living in the clouds. We eventually decided to drive the rest of the way to Cascade Falls, which is a trail we hiked back in 2023, which would mean we had linked up with the last section we had driven. As soon as we made it to the trailhead, it started to downpour on us, so we ended up just sitting in the van and hanging out, waiting for the rain to pass. When it finally did, we discussed what we wanted to do next. We didn’t feel a need to hike to the waterfall trail again; instead, Curtis realized there was a county high point peak nearby that he wanted to climb because he thought he’d regret it if he didn’t – and what else were we going to do today. I wasn’t interested because it was, at best, a very overgrown hike to a peak with no view, but I was happy to let him hike it. And so we drove over to that ‘trailhead’ and I continued hanging out in the van while he hiked.
Curtis: The hike to Thompkins Knob and the highest point of Wilkes County was fortunately, mostly along the Mountains to Sea Trail. I took the chance with a break in the showers and set off. Once under the tree canopy though, the rain really was non-existent. And, as advertised, a peak with no view and just under my desired prominence.
Finally, we decided we had given the ranger enough time to clear the tree, and we drove back up towards Doughton Recreation Area. It was much busier than we expected, which we think is because there was also a race here that day, but we were at least able to find a parking spot to get into the visitor center and get stamps and postcards. After that, we decided not to waste any more time with getting a camping spot in case it happened to be busier because of the race. It wasn’t, of course, and we had no trouble finding a spot that was somewhat scenic and away from the other groups here. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the van, and went for one more sunset walk, just walking further North along the Parkway until we came to a clearing with a good view.
