Pettigrew State Park

Pettigrew State Park is the 39th Park in our 2025 North Carolina State Park Challenge. It’s a smaller park, located 75 miles northeast of Greenville. Most of the trails center around Lake Phelps which is North Carolina’s second largest natural lake with a surface area of over 16,000 acres. It’s unsure how old the lake is, but an Indian dugout canoe has been found in the lake dating back 4,400 years. Even thought it is an incredibly large lake, it is also a very shallow lake with its deepest part at only 9ft.

We took Lake Shore Trail out to Bee Tree Trail and the Bee Tree Overlook. Lake Shore Trail is all a boardwalk with multiple boardwalk sections out to the lake. After the boardwalk ends, you come out at Somerset Place Historic Place- a remodeled 19th century planation. You walk kind of awkwardly behind the plantation to the wooded area on the other side to get the to beginning of Bee Tree Trail (I pretty much had to be in the woods to see the sign for the trail). Then you follow the path out past the group campsites to another small boardwalk and view of the lake. There was quite a bit of foliage out by the overlook, so it was really only a partial view. Bee Tree Trail was also not as kept up as the boardwalk and it was also starting to get dark. I think this coupled with passing the planation property and the fact that this trail also goes out to a cemetery (which we skipped for obvious reasons) made it feel a little creepy. I think the best views of the lake were back along Lake Shore Trail and the boardwalk, I would probably skip Bee Tree Trail if I went again.

We stopped at all of the boardwalk overlooks on the way back, and our favorite view was the last one before the plantation property (when coming from the park parking lot). Finally we made it back to the pier near the boat ramp for the rest of the sunset. Across the glassy water it was a gorgeous sunset!

This park does have camping- tent, RV/Trailer and group campsites. The sites at the Family Campground do have space for RVs/Trailers but they do not have an electrical hook-up. Enjoy!

Park Details:
ADDRESS: 2252 Lake Shore Road, Creswell NC 27928
HOURS: November-February: 8am-6pm
March-April & September-October: 8am-8pm
June-August: 8am-9pm
VISITOR CENTER: Open Monday-Friday: 8:30am-6pm. Closed on all State Holidays
PASSPORT STAMP: Located at the Park Office (stickers left on the bulletin board outside the door when closed)
ENTRANCE FEE: No Entrance Fee
TRAILS: 9 miles of hiking trails
ACTIVITIES: Hiking, Biking, paddling, Swimming, & Fishing
DOG RULES: Dogs are allowed on all trails. Dogs are not allowed in park buildings or on swim beaches. Please pick up after your pet!

Check out our videos about this Park on instagram @axel.theadventurepup