By:
Submission
Located in Gates County 10 miles south of North Carolina's northeastern border with Virginia, Merchants Millpond State Park centers on a 760-acre millpond more than 190 years old. Hiking the surrounding trails or paddling the placid, shallow waters of the pond offer a great way to explore this wetland environment. Old-growth cypress trees adorned with Spanish moss create an "enchanted forest," particularly at Lassiter Swamp. Visitors have even spotted the American alligator here, at the northernmost point of its range.
Merchants Millpond is located in northeastern North Carolina in Gates County near the community of Gatesville. The park may be reached from US 158, NC 32 and NC 37. It is approximately 30 miles from the North Carolina cities of Ahoskie, Elizabeth City and Edenton and is also 30 miles from Suffolk, Virginia. From I-95, take US 158 east. Travel north on US 13/US 158 and turn right to follow US 158 east. Turn right on Millpond Road, go approximately 1/2 mile and turn in at the picnic area entrance. The Visitors Center will be on the right.
Merchants Millpond is a great state park. Really one of the most beautiful I have spent time in. The trees growing in the pond along with the Spanish Moss and algae make for a wonderful canoe trip.
We also saw an Alligator - you can see his head and back in a picture I posted.
A great place to kayak, canoe, or hike.
This an excellent place to paddle. The park does have canoes to rent. We had the most fund exploring beyond the marked canoe trails. The bathrooms at the campground are older. The sites in general have a lot of privacy. We went on a rainy weekend and it wasn’t busy at all. The trails are kid friendly and can be combined to make for shorter or longer hikes.
Nice place to go if you don't want to be right on the water. It's about 0.5 mile hike down a trail to the water & it was covered with what looked like duck weed so it made fishing very difficult. We didn't see or catch any fish. The showers were poorly lit and the water was extremely hot...I couldn't adjust the temperature, neither could my wife in the women's shower.
Three days camping at the family campground. Enjoyed our stay immensely. The cicadas, crickets, and frogs nightly serenaded us. The facilities were clean and stocked. Exploring the trails was fun, but spending a day padding on the Millpond capped the entire trip. The rangers and staff were fantastic, and the welcome center had very good exhibits
We've hiked the Millpond a dozen times. Nice quality loop about 6 miles all in. There are many options to adjust length from 2 to 6 miles depending on cut thrus, etc. We bring our big dog and see a few others on the trails. Never very crowded. Park has water and restrooms. Rangers are friendly and helpful too.
