CHIMNEY ROCK - It’s hard to resist something new and shiny.

Especially a brand new mountain hiking trail, flecked with strikingly scenic views and glittering from the splashes of a famous waterfall.

Chimney Rock State Park has just opened the new Skyline Trail, as the name implies, a trail that runs along the very top of Chimney Rock Mountain, giving hikers a view from the sky and from the top of the 404-foot high Hickory Nut Falls, one of the highest in the Eastern United States.

A thread of hikers kept themselves pushing forward, and upward, last week to see the new trail, even through the sweatiness of an 80-degree late September morning.

The Skyline Trail has been nearly a decade in design and creation.

It is also named for the old Skyline-Cliff Trail, which used to take a precarious route across the upper cliff face to the top of the falls. After a 2-year-old fell to his death from that trail in 2008 by slipping through a fence, it was closed and decommissioned.

Mary Jaeger-Gale, general manager for Chimney Rock Management LLC, which runs the “attraction,” or the trails, shops and elevator at the state park, said the private company, the State Parks System and the nonprofit Friends of Chimney Rock State Park were intent since that time on creating a safer trail that would bring people to a similar overlook at the highest point in the park.

“It breaks my heart,” Jaeger-Gale said of the accident. “We’re trying to make things as safe as possible.”

Last week, Jaeger-Gale and other park staff, as well as the state park’s superintendent James Ledgerwood, led some of the trail’s first hikers slowly up the new, 1.1-mile Skyline Trail, which was cut into the mountain, instead of hanging off a massive rock.

Without structures such as stairs and bridges to maintain, the trail was built to be sustainable and blend more naturally with the environment.

Chimney Rock Park was established as a private park in 1916 by the Morse Brothers – Lucius, Hiram and Asahel. They built a 3-mile park road leading to the top of the 2,280-foot-high mountain and charged people a fee to hike among the cliffs, grottoes and boulders, and gawk at the gorgeous views, with somewhat inadequate and unsafe ladders and bridges.

The land remained in the Morse Family until they sold it to the state in 2007. While the 6,800 acres of Chimney Rock are managed by the state parks system, the 1,000 acres of the original park are managed by a private company that charges fees.

Heading toward the sky

Access to the Skyline Trail, rated strenuous, is only by relentless climbing. It starts at the upper parking lot by the gift shop. Normally an option of an elevator ride would bring visitors up through the mountain to the viewing area and set of stairs to Chimney Rock.

Since the elevator has been out of order for more than a year, hikers must use their feet. The first climb is on the Outcroppings Trail – an intricately built, 500-step staircase reinforced with steel beams and railings.

Newly renovated, requiring helicopters to haul in the building materials, the trail intimidates those who look up. But there are many wider landings in place for stopping for a sip of water and a breather. From there it’s another 338 steps to Exclamation Point.

The trail weaves in and out of the mountain and its naturally carved grottoes, tunnels, nooks and crannies, passing by sites you can’t pass up – places like Pulpit Rock and the Opera Box.

Exclamation Point has been the ultimate destination for years, at 2,480 feet elevation, offering the best view of Hickory Nut Gorge, which includes the protruding Rumbling Bald (also part of Chimney Rock State Park, with free access to rock climbing and hiking) and the long blue slice of Lake Lure. And it was also the end of the line for hiking.

But now Exclamation Point is just the beginning.

The 1.1-mile Skyline Trail starts here, with a dramatic shift from the open faces of rock, and heat, as it heads into a mixed oak-hickory forest, with plenty of leafy shade. There is still climbing, but now it’s on switchbacks on an old access road bed, in many places covered with gravel to prevent erosion. New stone steps were gathered from nearby rock.

Emily Walker, a naturalist with Chimney Rock LLC, points out elements that make fall in the park so pretty.

“Some of the hickories and sourwood are starting to turn color, but it’s our early fall wildflowers that are really incredible,” Walker said.

The trail is dotted with goldenrod, snakeroot and wood aster.

The park’s wide range of elevation and habitat lends itself to rich biodiversity. Chimney Rock is classified as a state Significant Natural Heritage Area, with nearly 600 plant species and some 90 rare plants including Carolina saxifrage and sweet white trillium, and 19 rare animal species such as the Peregrine falcon, cerulean warbler and green salamander.

Walker brushes her hand casually through what looks to be high grass. But it’s white irisette, a federally endangered plant.

The park’s natural wonders also caught the eye of Hollywood. Parts of the 1992 blockbuster "Last of the Mohicans" with Daniel Day-Lewis were filmed at the park.

Halfway up Skyline, hikers arrive at Peregrine’s Point, a perfect rest stop with picnic tables and front-row seat to a sea of mountain peaks. The Rocky Broad River streams below, and Walker said it’s not unusual during the fall migration to see the namesake peregrine falcons diving from the rocks here in search of lunch.

Janet and Bill Gerringer were on their way home to Greensboro from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, last week, and decided to check out the park for the first time. At Peregrine’s Point, their calves were aching, but they wanted to keep climbing to see around the next corner.

“The views are unreal,” said Janet, who pushed the limits of her fear of heights to edge closer to each overlook.

“We’ve been to Germany, and this looks a lot like the Alps,” Bill said.

Back into the woods, the trail soon runs along Falls Creek, eventually spilling into Hickory Nut Falls. More colorful wildflowers such as great blue lobelia line the stream, and hikers need to rock hop to cross without getting wet feet. Evidence of Hurricane Irma are the large trees split open and knocked down, but that will stay, Walker said, to let the forest continue in its natural state.

A last climb gives way to the upper cascades of Hickory Nut Falls, elevation 2,590 feet. Although hikers can’t see completely over the edge. A sturdy wood fence and wire mesh are meant to keep people safe.

“Since I started here as superintendent in 2010, this trail is all people have been talking about,” Ledgerwood said, looking across the top of the falls to where the old Skyline Trail used to sit.

“Putting a trail on the side of a cliff is not easy. It’s on a pretty gentle grade and I’m happy to say there are no structures on the trail so the upkeep will cost nothing. It’s a good change, a sustainable change, and no matter the weather or the economy, it will always be here.”

The total project cost was $39,500, including $20,000 from State Parks, and the rest from Chimney Rock LLC and Friends of Chimney Rock State Park, Jaeger-Gale said. YRU Contracting Inc., of Idaho, cut out the new trail, hauling out 14.7 tons of debris and hauling in 158.41 tons of gravel for the new trail.

“Our guests have been asking for this. This gives them more places to hike, and longer places to hike. This is a great day,” said Jaeger-Gale, who has worked at the park for 36 years.

But she implores people to stay safe and heed signs.

Many red signs along the trail say: "Warning! Area contains hazards associated with rocks, steep slopes and cliffs. Stay on marked trail. Injury or death possible.”

Check it out

The park will hold a guided Skyline Trail Trek from 9 a.m.-noon Oct. 21. Register by calling 828-625-9611. Visit www.chimneyrockpark.com.