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Raven Rock State Park
Anyone with kids in eastern North Carolina should take them to Raven Rock State Park outside of Lillington in Harnett County at least once. Younger kids, especially, will be fascinated by the namesake rock face on the Cape Fear River.
Raven Rock has a visitors center, picnic grounds, several hiking trails, family and hike-in camping, mountain biking and fishing along the river bank. The Avents Creek Access Area across the river has two bridle trails offering seven miles of horseback riding. That area has parking and picnic tables.
Raven Rock is also one of the more popular state parks, and it often fills to capacity on nice weekendss.
The visitors center (below) has a few exhibits about the park’s history, geology and wildlife; an arrowhead collection on display; classrooms; gifts; restrooms; picnic tables; and park offices.
Directly below we have more about the iconic Raven Rock rock face, or you can jump to:
Raven Rock sits along the Cape Fear River at the fall zone, where the hard, resistant rocks of the state’s piedmont give way to the softer rocks and sediments of the coastal plain. The underlying rocks of the area were formed more than 400 million years ago by intense heat and pressure, and water and wind carved and sculpted the Raven Rock. The rock face is as much as 150 feet tall and more than a mile long.
Climbing on the rock face at Raven Rock is prohibited, but some find it hard to resist. In truth, the park has several trails and other areas not open to the public that are easily accessed.
Raven Rock Loop Trail
The Raven Rock Loop trail is an easy one-mile route to the park’s namesake rock face and an overlook above the Cape Fear River. When we visited the park in November 2021, we followed the trail counterclockwise, picking up the trailhead just off of the main day use area parking lot.
Our route brought us to the trail’s river overlook about halfway to the rock.
The view below is to the west. Sometimes on a clear day, you can see steam rising from the Shearon Harris nuclear plant, about 25 miles away, as it was on our visit.
At about the loop’s halfway point , the trail starts to head downward toward the rock face.
The final descent is down a long, steep staircase, which you will feel in your legs after coming back up.
But you’ll want to spend some time at the bottom of the rock before heading back.
Fish Traps Trail
There are many places to get down on the river at Raven Rock, but the half-mile Fish Traps Trail is a straight route to a rock formation and a Class I rapid on the river above where the Northington Lock and Dam was destroyed by a hurricane in the mid-1800s. Take a left off of the Raven Rock Loop and Fish Traps is a rocky route down to the river that features a long flight of steps.
One legend of the “fish traps” is that Native Americans counted on depressions in the rocks to catch fish trapped in them when the river’s water rose and fell. The N.C. State Parks page says the trail is named for the 18th-century fishing baskets used by early settlers in this area.
As always, the steps on the trail seem taller and steeper on the way back up. Fish Traps is rated easy on the N.C. State Parks page for Raven Rock but is moderate on the park’s trails map.
Camping At Raven Rock State Park
Raven Rock, which opened as a state park in 1969, finally developed a family campground in 2019. The Moccasin Branch Campground at Raven Rock State Park is accessible by car just outside of the park’s main entrance and offers 24 campsites for tents or RVs. Nine RV sites have water, sewer and electricity hookups. All sites have long driveways to accommodate RVs, and also have tent pads, campfire rings with a grill, picnic tables and lantern hooks. There’s also a bathhouse with toilets and hot showers, and potable water spigots and trash and recycling bins are located around the campground loop.
Raven Rock is also one of a few N.C. state parks that offer cabins for rent. Moccasin Branch’s six camper cabins have one bedroom with a queen bed and one with two sets of twin-sized bunk beds. They also have electricity and heating and air-conditioning but no plumbing. Each also has a tent pad with a picnic table, a fire ring, a charcoal grill, two Adirondack chairs, and a lantern hook. The cabins are set near the campground’s bathhouse.
Raven Rock also offers primitive backpacking at five campsites just off of the Campbell Creek Loop Trail, approximately 2.5 miles from the parking lot and 0.5 mile from the river. The maximum number of campers for each site is six. There are six more campsites, accommodating up to six campers each, located beside the river off of the Little Creek Loop Trail. In addition to the 1.7-mile hike in from the park office, this campground can be reached via a canoe landing on the river. Both camping areas offer a vault toilet, and all sites include a fire ring with a grill.
The main area of Raven Rock State Park is off of U.S. 421 about 5 miles west of Lillington in Harnett County. To access the park’s bridle trails section, take U.S. 401 north of Lillington to Christian Light Road south of Kipling, and from Christian Light, turn onto River Road.
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