Continuing my trend of outdoor activities, I decided to explore the Latta Nature Preserve after arriving in Huntersville, just north of Charlotte, North Carolina. The Latta Nature Preserve is a large nature preserve that supposedly has 1,460 acres of land and 16 miles of trails. I obviously couldn’t explore it all in one day, so I took two hiking trips spread across two separate days to see as much of it as I could.
I started by going to the waterfront near the Historic Latta Plantation and hiked the Buzzard Rock Trail. At the end was Buzzard Rock and a little platform that had a nice view of Mountain Island Lake.
After retracing my steps for a bit, I continued onto Laura’s Trail which led me to Wash Rock, another lookout spot that had a view of Mountain Island Lake from a different angle.
From there, I got a little lost and started taking any trail I could find, which ended up being the Shady Trail up to the Carolina Raptor Center, then back via Catawba Trail. After returning to my parking spot at the waterfront, I continued going south to check out the beachy area.
On the second day, I started at the Latta Plantation Nature Center and headed north on Hill Trail before connecting onto Cove Trail and returning via Split Rock Trail. This particular route didn’t have as many spots with nice views, but I did catch some of the Catawba River from the Cove Trail at the tip of one of the peninsulas.
In total, my adventure spanned across just over eight and a half miles and took right around three hours to complete.
By the way things are looking now, it seems like I might not have time to go on any other tourist activities, but at the very least, I’m hoping I can squeeze in another hike on a different trail before I head to my next city.