Southern Blue Ridge

Camping near Asheville, North Carolina

First of 3 stops moving north, adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway, through western North Carolina and Virginia.

Revisits to 3 National Park sites (to see new-to-us sites):

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park (#244), where we returned to drive up Clingmans Dome (the road to it opened April 1). At 6,643 feet, it is the highest point in the Great Smokies, the highest point in Tennessee, and the third highest mountain east of the Mississippi.¹  A partly cloudy day, as we drove in, but the top of Clingmans Dome was swathed in clouds. We still walked up the steep half-mile to the tower at the top, but didn’t get much of a view.
• Appalachian National Scenic Trail (#86-revisit), which we briefly got onto again, in 2 spots, during our visit to Clingmans Dome.
• Blue Ridge Parkway (#245), connecting Shenandoah National Park (MP 0) to Great Smoky Mountains National Park (MP 469.1), is the Most Visited National Park Unit. Unfortunately, most of the Visitor Centers & Museums along the way don’t open until April 14 or 28. So our explorations of the next week or so will mostly be driving some of it, stopping at pullouts and taking a few short hikes. Over two days from the Asheville area, we drove 73.3 miles (15.6%) on it:
  • After visiting to Clingmans Dome, we drove from the Southern Entrance at MP 469.1 to MP 443.1. At Waterrock Knob, we walked another steep half-mile to the viewpoint.
  • Second drive began at the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center in Asheville at MP 384, before we drove north to Craggy Gardens, MP 364.5, where the road is closed for tunnel work. Then we drove south, past Mt. Pisgah, to MP 411.8, where the road was Closed for Snow! (It was ~37^o at the high point of our drive…and WINDY! Mostly just enjoyed the views.)

Day trip visit to 1 new National Park Site:

• Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site (#247), where we toured his home and learned why he was the “Poet of the People”. We hadn’t realized that he was a journalist, novelist, historian, poet, biographer, musician, and social activist. Among many honors, he received a Pulitzer in History, for Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & The War Years (Six Volume Set) in 1940 and a Pulitzer in Poetry for his Collected Poems in 1951. But the only honor he displayed in his home was from the NAACP, for his coverage of the 1919 Chicago race riots and for his “life-long struggle to extend the frontiers of social justice.” We also hiked 4.5 miles on trails on the 270 acres, including up Glassy Mountain.

No, we did not make it to the Biltmore, or visit Asheville, at all. Thought about doing the Hop-On Hop-Off Trolley yesterday, but by the time we finished chores and the temperature broke 45, the traffic had doubled the drive time there. Eh. Next time. We did stop at the Sierra Nevada Brewery, in Mills River, North Carolina. Who knew they opened a second Brewery, on the east coast, 10 years ago?!? Toured the brewery and had a great dinner.

Got to Fancy Gap, Virginia today

We’ll be here for the solar eclipse, ~85%, but it is supposed to be cloudy.

For more pictures, see (in-work) Adventure Album:  Southern Appalachians

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1. Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, at 6,288.2 feet, is the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi. ↩︎