Buffalo Mountain Park

• 5.58 miles
• 5:03 duration
• 1041 feet elevation gain
• 10 caches logged
• 2 caches visited (previously logged)

LakeBum and I hiked a section of Buffalo Mountain Park I’d never been in, and I learned there were many more trails here than I’d ever imagined.

We parked at the trailhead for Hartsell Hollow, hiked up that trail, and across the newer trail The Noggin to the Tower Ridge Trail. The Noggin was a challenging route – steep and rugged – and soon we had jelly legs. Once on the Tower Ridge Trail, we took it downhill a short distance to log a cache.

We then followed the trail back up and to the towers, and beyond to log another cache. We took the White Rock Loop to the overlook, and back up to the towers where we had lunch and replaced a missing cache.

We then followed Highridge Road down the mountain, with a few detours on side trails to log caches. Rain threatened throughout the day, but each time it looked like it would start we commented loudly that we were putting on our rain jackets and the threat would go away.

A highlight of the hike (no pun intended) was watching a giant sunbeam track across the valley below, highlighting various buildings on a farm like a spotlight.