After hitting up Musgrove Mill, we headed up the road towards Spartanburg through the town of Pauline (stopping to eat at the Pauline Cafe). Soon thereafter, we entered Croft State Park. This is a big state park, so even after entering, we still had to drive a few minutes to get to the main park office and trail heads.
This park has connections both to the 18th and 20th centuries. There are some family cemeteries from homesteads that were here in the 1700s. Additionally, this was a training site and prisoner-of-war camp in the time of World War 2.
Nowadays, the park is used for hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian events (hence the stamp). Part of the Palmetto Trail runs through here. The forest here is quite beautiful, and the daffodils were just starting to spring up.
After stamping our passports, we saw some people with their horses. We decided to get closer, and the ladies were kind enough to let the girls touch and feed the horses.
We picked a trail that would take us to the longest trail bridge in the state park system, recently completed last summer. The creek it flowed over was beautiful, and I now am curious about the rock formations along the creek bed.
We found a geocache along the way, and we were headed towards one of the family cemeteries, but after hiking a while and with energy stores running low, we decided to turn back.
There is so much to explore here. You could easily spend the whole day out here. I look forward to coming back some time and doing more hiking. Check out more pictures of our visit below!
Beavers in the Park 