This is a retrospective blog of my seven-week exploration of Virginia along with a journey through the Shenandoah National Park and on down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee, North Carolina. 'Retrospective' means simply that it wasn't written during the trip, but is being written after-the-fact, a little over a year later. Baaswell Sheep accompanied me and is writing the blog in the way he's done my later blogs, since he's so good with the color commentary. Unfortunately, since I didn't plan for this blog back when I was doing the trip, my pictures are limited to the major attractions, but I'll try to make those galleries a little larger than I do in my later blogs.
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So, we got up early, hopped in the van, headed back east out US 74, got a little breakfast at a Dunkin Donuts, and then went on out to the town of Old Fort, where we turned off on a small road that wound back in the woods for about three miles. At the end, we came upon a mass of vehicles parked everywhere. I don't think there was even an illegal parking space available. We'd been warned that Catawba Falls had just reopened recently and was going to be really popular, but we were not expecting this. After circling the parking area twice, we gave up and headed back to Old Fort. My companion plotted out a course and we headed up to Mount Mitchell, as our visit in 2009 had been under less than optimal conditions, so it seemed like a great substitute for Catawba, even if we wouldn't get to meet up with any of the IT folk there.
Mount Mitchell is the highest point not only in North Carolina, but the highest point in the continental United States east of the Mississippi River. The park is only accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway via a mile and a half road at milepost 355.3. Along the way to the peak, you can stop off at the park's restaurant, which we saved for on our way out. We drove to the parking area and then took to the paved walkway, which is a deceiving concept: one tends to think that if a walkway is paved, it's going to be fairly easy to traverse. Not this one, for it's all uphill, and kind of steep. Even though it's only about half a mile to the top, that's one long, long half a mile. Still, the views were stunning today (last time we had fog and the temperatures were in the low 40's if not lower). We took it all in and got some pictures, then went back down to the parking area and looked through the little museum there. Then, my companion got his hiking gear and hiked out to Mount Craig, the second highest peak east of the Mississippi. He said the hike wasn't all that bad, perhaps even easier than getting to the top of Mount Mitchell in spite of this being a rocky backcountry trail of a little over a mile. On returning, we went down to that restaurant and had a late lunch before heading back to the Parkway.
Views From Mount Mitchell Peak
Mount Mitchell Nature Museum
Key to pictures: Bobcat, Gray Fox, Bear Cub, Skunk (bear cub in background)
Craggy Gardens is one of those places that's so interesting because there's simply no place else like it anywhere else along the Parkway. They're hard to describe, but its a lot of lower bush-like ground cover as opposed to hiking through a forest of tall trees. We hiked a trail from the visitor's center back to the picnic area, which is accessed from a completely different road off the Parkway, yet is not terribly far away as the crow flies and the trail goes. Along the way, there's this cool gazebo nestled in the woods were we sat and relaxed for a good, long while. Most of the pictures below are actually of the Craggy Pinnacle tunnel, which is just a short walk from the visitors center, and thus a good tunnel to walk through and get an up-close look at how they were made. Fun fact: There are twenty-six tunnels along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and all but one are in North Carolina, and the majority are actually in the quarter of the Parkway southwest of Asheville!
After Craggy Gardens, we returned to our hotel in Asheville. We were only going to stay two nights, but my companion decided to add an extra night so that he could go into downtown Asheville for a short while tomorrow. After that, we're heading southwest for our last day on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's hard to believe that we have only six days of our trip left, but we'll do our best to make the most of them.
Please note that all restaurant and product names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
Mount Mitchell is the highest point not only in North Carolina, but the highest point in the continental United States east of the Mississippi River. The park is only accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway via a mile and a half road at milepost 355.3. Along the way to the peak, you can stop off at the park's restaurant, which we saved for on our way out. We drove to the parking area and then took to the paved walkway, which is a deceiving concept: one tends to think that if a walkway is paved, it's going to be fairly easy to traverse. Not this one, for it's all uphill, and kind of steep. Even though it's only about half a mile to the top, that's one long, long half a mile. Still, the views were stunning today (last time we had fog and the temperatures were in the low 40's if not lower). We took it all in and got some pictures, then went back down to the parking area and looked through the little museum there. Then, my companion got his hiking gear and hiked out to Mount Craig, the second highest peak east of the Mississippi. He said the hike wasn't all that bad, perhaps even easier than getting to the top of Mount Mitchell in spite of this being a rocky backcountry trail of a little over a mile. On returning, we went down to that restaurant and had a late lunch before heading back to the Parkway.
