Trail Days brings festival life back to Elkin | Yadkin Ripple

ELKIN — N.C. Trails Days wrapped up Sunday after four days of hiking-friendly weather and a smattering of offerings to appeal to young and old, nature-lovers and party-goers, and those who live down the street or across the state.

The event featured more than 100 events ranging from a kayak flotilla to guided hikes to a block party of food and music on Main Street.

Visitors came from as far away as North Dakota, reported Andy Anderson, who was manning the Main Street booth for his family’s Brushy Mountain Granola Co. out of Wilkesboro.

“They were camping up at Doughton Park and came down for the festival,” he said, adding that their booth welcomed visitors from Rock Hill, S.C., Winston-Salem and Greensboro, as well.

“It’s been steady,” Anderson said of the crowd visiting vendor village on Main Street on Saturday.

Inside the Foothills Quilters guild quilt show at The Heritage Center, a tally showed 190 people had strolled the exhibits as of mid-day Saturday, according to members Barbara Monroe, of State Road, and Joan Sanders, of Elkin. At The Heritage Center, festival attendees swapped ideas of self-guided hikes to explore or upcoming events to check out.

On the center’s porch on Saturday, the ruckus of hammer pounding intermittently rang out, as attendees pressed flowers and botanicals onto white fabric quilting squares to take home for future creations. Around the side of the center, the Boy Scouts offered tee-shirt tie-dying and archery, among other hands-on demonstrations.

This was the second year that N.C. Trail Days was held, with the first being in 2019 (the 2020 festival was canceled due to the pandemic). Elkin Town Manager Brent Cornelison anticipates in the coming months that an evaluation of the economic impact of the event on the local economy will likely be available from festival organizers.