The disturbance of the growth steps in SiC epitaxy and the formation of stacking faults (SFs) in the vicinity of a micropipe were studied by Atomic Force Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy. Shallow trenches are observed in front of the micropipes due to the distortion of the growth steps towards of the micropipe. The trenches are related with extended (1 (1) over bar 00) type SFs bounded by 1/6 < 11 (2) over bar1 > partial dislocations. These results are also supported by synchrotron X-ray topography.