Davidson, North Carolina, never particularly struck me as a place with many opportunities for hiking and being out in nature. When most people think about Davidson, they think about a college, a quaint downtown and neighborhoods.

But since I moved here in late 2022, especially over the past six months, I have been decisively proved wrong.

In my nearly two years of living in this tiny and unique town with all the fantastic restaurants, coffee shops, stores and even a major college, the trails have always stood out to me as such a beautiful and somewhat quaint part of living here.

I discovered the trails as a journey about a year after moving to the area. As I was trying to get more exercise, I slowly came across these trails in south Davidson as places to jog and walk.

The trails are the ‘ Lake Davidson Nature Preserve’ trail and the ‘Parham Park’ trail.

These trails have several characteristics that people who usually would not go on hikes would enjoy. They are flat, and rarely significant hills would tire or fatigue a hiker. They are also very close to the more populated areas, so close that you can often talk to people sitting on their back porches as you walk along them no matter what time of day.

Between these two trails, which are both on the shores of Lake Norman, and each runs for nearly a mile, beautiful hiking trails are far from hard to find.

The natural beauty of Davidson is hard to understate and is incredible in a way that cannot be fully described. The trails here are lovely places to walk and make for amazing hikes, lying just under our suburbanite noses.

In early November, I set off to explore and document the beauty of these trails in Davidson. I found a unique and diverse set of landscapes, which I have documented in picture form here.

Along these trails I found peace and serenity.