Stories
Celebrate NC Trails
Published: April 01, 2023
This article, written in partnership with the Hickory Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau for the 2023 North Carolina Year of the Trail April theme of "Celebrate NC Trails," was originally published on the Visit Hickory Metro blog.
This April, we are celebrating ALL the trails that run through Catawba County and what makes them great. Catawba County has over 45 miles of trails that weave and wander through our community, connecting us, growing us, and pushing us to learn and embrace what nature has to offer. The four parks in the Catawba County Park System, Bakers Mountain, Mountain Creek, Riverbend, and St. Stephens, offer a variety of opportunities for outdoor adventures close to home, including hiking, biking, paddling, bird and wildlife watching, education, and much more. Each park has multiple amenities to meet your adventurous spirit and features trails for everyone to explore, including these trail networks that pass through our parks:
- The Carolina Thread Trail has many routes in Catawba County and a combined 12 miles of it are located at Bakers Mountain Park and Mountain Creek Park. "The Carolina Thread Trail is your regional network of connected greenways, trails, and blueways that reaches 15 counties, 2 states, and 2.9 million people. There are over 300 miles of trails and 170 miles of blueway open to the public – linking people to places, and communities to each other. The Thread Trail preserves our natural areas and is a place for recreation, transportation, and conservation. This is a landmark project that provides public and community benefits for people of every age, every background, and in every community in our region."
- If you appreciate birdwatching, Riverbend and Bakers Mountain Parks are part of the North Carolina Birding Trail. There are feeders near the offices or you can walk the trails to see what might be flying through the trees. Some of the unique birds you may see at Riverbend Park include bald eagles, great blue herons, ospreys, egrets, kingfishers, hawks, swallows, hummingbirds and neotropical migrants like the warblers, grosbeaks, tanagers and flycatchers; at Bakers Mountain, you'll find migrating raptors like red-tailed coopers and sharp-shinned hawks, turkey and black vultures, cardinals, titmice, chickadees and nuthatches, plus many others depending on the season.
- LITeracy Trails (LIT = literature, information, and technology) offer a creative way to enjoy reading and the outdoors together. There are LITeracy stations at St. Stephens Park, Bakers Mountain Park, Bunker Hill Covered Bridge, and Murray's Mill Historic Site. These stations bring reading, technology, and fitness activities to the forefront as people relate to the stories in their own ways. Every trail consists of 18 individual stations that trace the storyline of different children’s books while also offering opportunities for exercise and further exploration. Featured books are changed on a quarterly basis.
- The Upper Catawba River Trail is a group of blueways that connect you to our rivers and lakes around the Hickory Metro. Riverbend Park is a part of this trail with kayak access and great spots for fishing. Check with a park ranger about water flows and best paddling times depending on the hydro generation at Oxford Dam upstream. Mountain Creek Park also contains great access to fishing and paddling areas.
- Mountain Biking Trails are at the heart of Catawba County. Mountain Creek has over 19 miles of trails for biking, including dedicated bike-only trails, plus a 1.2-acre pump track, tot track and tool stations, and offers endless route combinations. Mountain Creek has quickly become a regional mountain biking destination. Riverbend Park has 8 miles of mountain biking providing a technical, single-lane course for the biking enthusiast.
- Adequate access to our parks and trails is important, we want to make sure that all people can enjoy our trails. Two parks in the Catawba County Park System offer ADA-accessible trails, Bakers Mountain and Mountain Creek. We also have several city parks that are ADA-accessible as well.
Take some time for yourself and make your way to one of our many trail systems here in Catawba County! We hope that you will fall in love with the beauty, adventure, and learning that our trails hold.