Valle Crucis and the Parkway before heading home

Andrew and I finally left the Abingdon/Damascus area, and headed towards Valle Crucis, North Carolina.  We traveled for about 45 minutes through eastern Tennessee to get there. It was so crowded at the park and the Mast General Store and annex!  We saw some guys playing rugby at the community park. Never seen that before.

Unlike Damascus which was just mostly cloudy, the area near Boone was foggy.  You can see that in some of my pictures from the park.

Remember a few weeks ago when we went to Valle Crucis and these things were tall and yellow?  Now they are tall and wheat-colored.

After leaving Valle Crucis, we decided to make like we were heading towards home on hwy. 421, but then we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway headed north.  I knew that area was lower elevation than Boone, and was curious if we'd run out of the fog.  We did eventually though it was never blue skies and sunny. Still, there were some pretty views along the way.

We went on a few short walks. This one at the Lump Overlook.

Jumpinoff Rocks has a half-mile trail to an overlook.  The trail smelled good, and was very pleasant.

We stopped at the Northwest Trading Post to look around. I got a fall garden flag, and Andrew got a snack.  Then we decided to head for home.