Headed towards Asheville

On Friday morning, August 7, we left home a little after 7:00 headed west on interstate 40 to visit the mountains! Instead of heading towards Damascus and Abingdon, Virginia, or the Boone/Blowing Rock area of North Carolina, we went to the Asheville area.  It's a bit longer to reach, but not too bad. 

We wanted to visit Mt. Mitchell State Park so we got off the Marion exit and went up Hwy. 80 which Andrew decided to bike for a bit.  It had been going pretty flat, but about the time he started riding, the road started going up.  I would park a few places periodically so he could catch up - and let me know if he wanted to continue riding.  He did.

One of my stops was in this church parking lot where I found a stream to enjoy.

We finally arrived at Mt. Mitchell, and while the Appalachian Mountains are much smaller than mountains west of the Mississippi - or elsewhere in the world for that matter - they are still tall enough to experience FOG.  And, boy, was it foggy when we got there. 

You can kind of see it in this picture (above) which is where Andrew was getting ready to take pictures for Sjaak and Lidy, a brother and sister from the Netherlands, and their 94-year-old friend Sherman from the USA.  They are all part of the Highpointers club.  They try to visit the highest peak in every state.  Mt. Mitchell is the highest in North Carolina.

Because of the fog covering up the mountain view, I focused on other things like how much I enjoyed the lovely smell as we walked through the woods, and the lichen, berries, and flowers.

After our hike, we went back up to the summit and the fog had cleared some back to the east so we got a few pictures.

clearing some

Scientist Mitchell is buried here

Later we went down the Blue Ridge Parkway headed south.  We stopped at some overlooks, hiked a bit, and Andrew rode his bike.

The next day we spent over six hours on the parkway doing much of the same. We didn't have an issue with fog that day, and saw many lovely views. It's hard taking picture of views sometimes because cameras just don't do them justice.  Still, here are a few of the photos I took.

We met an international student group from Georgia State University at Devil's Courthouse Overlook.  We talked to a guy from Afghanistan and another from China, and we saw others from Sri Lanka, Iran, and the USA.   From this overlook you can see mountains in North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Devil's Courthouse Overlook

Waterrock Knob Overlook has one of the prettiest parking areas I've ever seen.  It's like mountain views where ever you look.  

Waterrock Knob Trail

Down the trail

The parking area

We also walked the Flowering Bridge in Lake Lure, and stayed at Carter Lodge in Chimney Rock.  We located Max Patch and visited Hot Springs before coming home Sunday. I will talk about those another time.