The Keowee Toxaway state park is rich with history of the Cherokee Indians and early settlers. In the mid 1700's the British built Fort Prince George close to this area as a center of trade and culture exchange between the Indians and early settlers. The park office has a small museum full of information about the Cherokee Indians and this area.

The park has some good accommodations if you are interested in a family getaway. This is not one of the biggest parks around, but they do have 24 campsites and a small meeting house for rent. Hikers are also allowed to camp along the Raven Rock and Natural Bridge trails.

The Natural Bridge and Raven Rock trails form a large, 4.2 mile loop that should be walked counter-clockwise. If you expect this hike to be your average day hike, think again! The first 1/2 mile of this trail had us convinced that it would be a boring and featureless hike that we would have to endure to get to the lake, but it quickly changed into one of the most strenuous trails that we have hiked.

There are a few notable features of this trail that are very interesting, and worth pointing out. At about 1/2 mile, you will cross over a small stream, which flows under the trail and forms the Natural Bridge, from which the Natural Bridge trail gets it's name. As the trail climbs from this bridge, you will come to several large boulders and rock balds, some that offer wonderful views of the Blue Ridge mountains to the west.

As the trail drops to the lake, you will enjoy the secluded peninsula that has been used for primitive camping. This camping area provides beautiful views of the setting sun to the west. The orange and red night sky glistens off the lake, and will almost make you forget the next day's hike back up the mountain.

The climb back to the trailhead is slightly easier than the hike to the lake, either because it is a little bit shorter, or by now you will know what to expect. After a strenuous climb away from the lake, the trail quickly plunges back to the small stream and for a few minutes you will enjoy the drop in altitude as well as temperature. But your enjoyment will be short lived as you have one final climb back to the trailhead.

We enjoyed our time on the Raven Rock trail. We are very surprised that this trail was listed at 4.2 miles, as it felt more like 5 or 6 to us. Maybe it is the degree of difficulty, but based on our hiking time and how we felt, our guess would be 6 miles rather than 4.2. The trail was not marked very well in some places and if you don't have a map, you could easily get mixed up. The trail is very steep in places, and not just uphill. In some places the down hill trail can be so steep that footing is precarious and walking is painful to the knees; whoever blazed this trail, obviously has not heard of switchbacks. And last of all, they must not maintain this trail very often, as we had to climb over or under at least a dozen fallen trees.

We expected this hike to be secluded and quiet, but we were a little disappointed that the trail followed highway 11 for the 1st 1/2 mile out and the last 1/2 mile back. The rest of the hike was more like we expected, but the camp was right on the lake which had it's pros and cons. The pros being the access to swimming during daylight and and lovely views at night; the con being the annoying and obnoxious boaters and skiers who care less that you're trying to enjoy a quiet weekend.

This trail and camping is worth the hike... but do not take the hike unless you have strong legs and plenty of water! To see our pictures, click here!