go hike a mountain

We slept in late again and said our goodbyes to the family and the dogs.

We had planned on driving straight to my aunt’s cabin near Asheville, NC, but I decided to call the Mt. Mitchell State Park for information about their road closings. I had originally read that some of the area would be closed off and we planned on getting to this highpoint sometime later. The person that answered told us the Blue Ridge Parkway was open from the north of the park entrance, but closed south of that, so we could drive to the summit parking area but we had to leave on the parkway the way we came. This wasn’t so bad because we had to kill some time before my Aunt Jackie got off of work.

We gained a lot of elevation just getting to the parkway and then a lot more in the 5 extra miles to the summit area. What I failed to realize was that the summit area was under construction so we were allowed to go to the summit parking lot, but not walk up to the true summit. Just like Mt. Rogers, we came within about 300 ft. of elevation of the top of Mt. Mitchell. It seems we’ll have to come back anyway.

The visitor’s center and parking lot were deserted except for one other family.

It was really windy, so we hurried back to the car. The real summit lies somewhere behind the car there.

We left the summit area and stopped at a few scenic overlooks on the way back down the mountain.

We dropped about 3000 ft in elevation in 20 minutes and there was much less windy.

From Mt. Mitchell we went west into Hendersonville to see my Aunt Sheila and Uncle Stanley. They live in apple country.

We had dinner with them and my cousin Kirk and his family.

Afterward, we drove to Swannanoa to meet Jackie so we could follow her up to the cabin. The drive up the mountain is really steep and dark and I’m sure we wouldn’t have found it ourselves at night. Jackie also has dogs and we got to meet them before getting some sleep.