In March 2026, the Town of Lake Lure officially reopened Buffalo Creek Park, providing local residents and visitors alike with 8 miles of quality hike and hike-bike trails right in Lake Lure! See the below map denoting which trails are open.
The following trails in this area are now open to the public:
Please note that the parking area on Shumont Rd. is closed. You can access Weed Patch via Buffalo Creek Park. Conserving Carolina is working with the Town of Lake Lure and NC State Parks toward a solution that will provide access to the northern endpoint of Weed Patch Mountain Trail.
Weed Patch Mountain Trail is the newest trail in Hickory Nut Gorge! The Town of Lake Lure opened it in May of 2018, connecting Buffalo Creek Park to Eagle Rock in Chimney Rock State Park.
The trail is 8.6 miles one way, extending from the highest point on Buffalo Creek Park blue to Eagle Rock. The view from Eagle Rock is an incredible display of the surrounding mountains, but Grey Rock Overlook, located about halfway up the trail, still offers great views for less mileage. The trail is a backcountry experience with thousands of feet of elevation gain and no other connecting trails on its entire length. Therefore, we suggest that only experienced and prepared hikers and bikers utilize this trail in its entirety.
The trail is open to mountain biking, though it is a narrow singletrack design without specific mountain bike features.
The sole access point for the trail is the Buffalo Creek Park trailhead, due to the parking at Eagle Rock closing in 2024. As a result, users must hike/bike 1.5 to 2 miles on the blue loop to reach the start of Weed Patch Mountain Trail.
For much more details about the trail and how it came to be, visit Conserving Carolina’s trail page here: https://conservingcarolina.org/weedpatch
The trail is part of the newly designated Hickory Nut Gorge State Trail System, which is envisioned to be more than 100 miles of trails throughout Hickory Nut Gorge. To read more about the plans and see a map of the current and proposed trails see the link below:
https://conservingcarolina.org/hickory-nut-gorge-trail/
WHERE: Lake Lure, NC
DIRECTIONS: 2191 Buffalo Creek Road, Lake Lure 28746 (For Buffalo Creek Park side)
Hopefully you won’t ever need to use it, but what happens if the batteries in your GPS are dead?
