Balanced Rock Trail

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Fall Colors · Geological Significance · River/Creek · Spring

The closest restroom is the Blackwater Lodge to the east of the trailhead.

Loose gravel, mud, and roots are plentiful.

An orange-blazed trail that begins at the main road across from the Elakala Trail. As you head south through the old-growth forest and cross Shay Trace and Red Spruce Trail, continue south to the Balanced Rock. As you turn to make your way past the sandstone boulders and push through patches of dense with rhododendron, head north over a bridge and end your trip by Cabin 13.

Balanced Rock was created by a phenomenon called differential weathering. The top rock has withstood the elements better than the bottom rock and a "table rock" remains.

Moss, Rhododendron maximum, Indian Pipes (Monotropa uniflora), Amanita flavoconia (Yellow Patches mushrooms), Entoloma salmoneum (Salmon Unicorn Entoloma mushrooms).