Dan River: Hanging Rock SP to Moratock Park

Trip Overview

A good kayak trip down the Dan River. This was our first trip down this section. It took about 2:30, with little paddling. Nice riffles, and small rapids that gave some excitement with a swift current. Was nice on a hot day. About halfway to Moratock Park, where we left a truck to get out, we encountered several large flotillas of tubers. They were loud, playing loud music, and made the trip less enjoyable. We put in at the launch at Hanging Rock State Park. Clean, easy access. A lot of people seem to use this spot, but everyone was very considerate, and made it easy to get in the water when we were ready. We got out at Moratock Park and will never use this location again. It was heavily congested with swimmers and people lounging around (even on the steps to get the kayaks out of the water). They would not move, nor did they care that people were trying to get their boats in/out. Another negative was that the parking lot was over-full, and hard to find a place to load the kayaks, and later, hard to turn around. Another kayaker said this was usual for the location.