Our first stop was a short half-mile hike at Craggy Gardens through rhododendron bushes to an overlook. We imagine it would be pretty awesome in the Spring when the flowers are blossoming. Already the tourist count was way up for this beautiful Sunday morning.
Our second hike of the day was at Crabtree Falls. It was a 1.3 mile hike down to the falls and then another 1.3 miles back up. The trail was riddled with tree roots, so you pretty much had to keep an eye on the path at all times. Combine that with some mud-soaked areas as water trickled down the side of the mountain; we tried to be careful.
We were fortunate to have such great weather.
The falls were beautiful, definitely worthy of a name such as Bridal Veil or Majestic instead of Crabtree Falls. We tried to be patient with the people climbing on the rocks under the falls and getting in the frame of our shots.
We lunched at one of the overlooks gazing over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Our third hike of the day at Linville Falls was quite busy with tourists. We wore masks more than we wanted to as we hiked up to a viewing area for the falls, hiked back down to a second overlook, and then down some more to the final viewing area.
Chris had wanted to stop at the Viaduct and a hanging bridge on our way to Boone, NC but the roadway was lined with cars for miles in either direction.
We continued on to Boone, home of Appalachian (pronounced App-a-latch-en) State College. Boone was a cute little town, but again, getting dinner was an exercise in patience. The waits at most places were extreme. We ended up at Chili’s, but not for the lack of trying to find someplace better.