This Land, Your Land

Next Saturday morning may not be the best time to visit Raven Rock State Park, unless you're into sharing the trail with long-distance runners.

The Raven Rock Rumble, 5- and 10-mile trail runs, is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. November 19. The runs start on the park's main road and take in the Raven Rock Loop, including American Beech Nature Trail, Little Creek Loop and Fish Traps Trail, and the Campbell Creek Loop.

The state parks division says to be aware of heavy vehicle and visitor/race participant traffic between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. This will include parking in the overflow lot off Moccasin Branch Road, according to the Rumble's website.

If you want to join the run, online registration has closed, but walk-up registration and packet pickup is to be at the new picnic shelter on the right side of the main park road.

The race is a benefit for Friends of State Parks and the Cumberland County Special Olympics.

The state Division of Parks and Recreation will dedicate the new visitor center at Raven Rock State Park in Lillington on Saturday, July 17.

Raven Rock State Park, named for the large rock face on the Cape Fear River (below), was established in 1969 and now encompasses 4,694 acres.

The project to build the 7,190-square-foot visitor center also included a picnic shelter, improvements to the picnic grounds, an accessible nature trail, a paved entrance road to the park and paved parking areas with space for 139 vehicles, a news release says. It all cost $4.3 million and came from the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, the principal funding source for state park capital projects and land acquisition.

The new visitor center will present exhibits that explore the natural history and the unique geologic events that resulted in the Raven Rock landscape, the history of Cape Fear River navigation and the river’s importance to local culture and commerce.

The center is also designed to be LEED certified, with a geothermal heat pump, solar hot water heating and low-flow water fixtures, low-energy light fixtures, solar lights in the parking area, recycled building materials and natural landscaping.