Starting mileage: 3164 Starting time: 9:00 am
Ending mileage: 3498 Ending time: 6:30 pm
Travel mileage: 334
When the weather forecast last night said chance of snow, we didn't believe it. Little did we know...
We got back on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville and went to the visitor center which had interesting information on the parkway which was started in 1933 as part of the WPA but wasn't actually completed until the 1980s.
On the way up to Mt. Mitchell, elev 6684, the highest peak on the east coast, we started to see light snow on the ground and the trees were covered with frost. As we got near the top, there was heavy fog, blowing wind and everything was coated with frost. It is only a short walk from the parking lot to the top of the mountain but with the temperature at 30 degrees and the wind, we didn't have enough clothes to go there.
Back along the parkway at lower elevations, we saw many dogwoods in full bloom, fire azaleas, rhododendron and carpets of white, pink and red trillium. There were spectacular views of the valley below.
We took a short walk into Linville Falls where one can clearly the the fault line of the tectonic plates, with billion year old gneiss on top of 550 million year old quartzite and 300 million year old crushed rock in between the layers. Linville Falls is named for a hunter/trapper who was killed by indians in the 1800s. There is a mining and minerals museum that is quite interesting - we didn't realize that there was so much mining in the area for feldspar, quartz, iron, mica, gold and other materials - most of them depleted at this point.
Traveling along the parkway is very scenic but also very slow and we wanted to get to Roanoke before too late. When we left the parkway, Vicky wanted us to go down a road that didn't exist and persisted in wanting us to make u-turns to go back there. We navigated using the map and saw a sign that someone put up saying "welcome to GPS hell" - we must not be the first people with this problem. On the way to Roanoke we had heavy rain for several hours, the first of our trip.
We wanted to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and asked the hotel clerk for a Mexican restaurant recommendation. We went to the recommended restaurant but it looked like many other people had the same idea as there was a huge crowd waiting. We went to the adjacent Ruby Tuesday instead for margaritas and queso with chips.
When the weather forecast last night said chance of snow, we didn't believe it. Little did we know...
We got back on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville and went to the visitor center which had interesting information on the parkway which was started in 1933 as part of the WPA but wasn't actually completed until the 1980s.
On the way up to Mt. Mitchell, elev 6684, the highest peak on the east coast, we started to see light snow on the ground and the trees were covered with frost. As we got near the top, there was heavy fog, blowing wind and everything was coated with frost. It is only a short walk from the parking lot to the top of the mountain but with the temperature at 30 degrees and the wind, we didn't have enough clothes to go there.
Back along the parkway at lower elevations, we saw many dogwoods in full bloom, fire azaleas, rhododendron and carpets of white, pink and red trillium. There were spectacular views of the valley below.
We took a short walk into Linville Falls where one can clearly the the fault line of the tectonic plates, with billion year old gneiss on top of 550 million year old quartzite and 300 million year old crushed rock in between the layers. Linville Falls is named for a hunter/trapper who was killed by indians in the 1800s. There is a mining and minerals museum that is quite interesting - we didn't realize that there was so much mining in the area for feldspar, quartz, iron, mica, gold and other materials - most of them depleted at this point.
Traveling along the parkway is very scenic but also very slow and we wanted to get to Roanoke before too late. When we left the parkway, Vicky wanted us to go down a road that didn't exist and persisted in wanting us to make u-turns to go back there. We navigated using the map and saw a sign that someone put up saying "welcome to GPS hell" - we must not be the first people with this problem. On the way to Roanoke we had heavy rain for several hours, the first of our trip.
We wanted to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and asked the hotel clerk for a Mexican restaurant recommendation. We went to the recommended restaurant but it looked like many other people had the same idea as there was a huge crowd waiting. We went to the adjacent Ruby Tuesday instead for margaritas and queso with chips.
Day 14 route
Frosty conditions at Mt. Mitchell
View from Blue Ridge Parkway
Linville Falls (upper)
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