Trail head: Milepost 361.2 Blue Ridge Parkway
Distance: 0.1 miles
Duration: 1 minutes
Skill Level: Easy
Overview:
When you park at the Blue Ridge Parkway overlook. Get out of the car and walk up the little hill on the path. Once you get to the top you will see the waterfall across the valley on the far side of the overlook.
Tips:
Photo Gallery
*Click on thumbnails for larger viewing and slideshow
Trail head: Milepost 364 Blue Ridge Parkway
Distance: 0.9 miles
Duration: 60 minutes
Skill Level: Moderate Hiking Trail
Overview:
Craggy Gardens and Craggy Pinnacle Trail is one of the most beautiful trails to hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway when the Rhododendrons are blooming forming a canopy of magenta and purple color against the greenery and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Craggy Gardens is located on milepost 364 on the Blue Ridge Parkway and is about 1hr 30 min from Banner Elk North Carolina.
Your trail hike starts in the parking lot…we parked in the lower parking lot showing you a magnificent 180 degree panoramic video of the Blue Ridge mountains. Then continue to the upper parking lot where you will see the parkway sign “Craggy Dome” the trail head is just on the other side indicated by a sign. The first part of the trail is covered by color as the plants create a canopy in which you walk under on the trail. The first part of the journey is a gradual climb; then you reach a bend and a nice elevated rock with a view.
The trail then leans more upward until it reaches a fork to the right where there is a plateau and many scenic overlooks. As you loop back around the trail with a sign states left to the upper lookout and right to the lower lookout. The lower lookout just allows you to see the visitor center and the mountains in the distance about a 180 degree view. If you want to feel like you are on top of the world take the upper lookout trail until you reach the rock wall with stairs. As you emerge from the stairs you will see a 360 degree lookout with a beautiful scenic landscape of the Blue Ridge mountains, the Asheville watershed lake, and more.
What goes up must come down as the walk down the mountain trail is a lot more easier than going up.
Tips:
Craggy Gardens Trail Map
Photo Gallery
*Click on thumbnails for larger viewing and slideshow
Trail head: Milepost 355.4 Blue Ridge Parkway
Distance: 0.5 miles
Duration: 6 minutes
Skill Level: Moderate / Strenuous
Overview:
Lofty Mount Mitchell, near Burnsville, North Carolina, rises to an elevation of 6,684 feet and is the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is the centerpiece of the 1,946-acre Mount Mitchell State Park, which is easily accessible off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Mount Mitchell State Park offers numerous hiking trails as well as a museum, restaurant, concession stand and gift shop. A new observation deck, accessible by wheelchair, offers breathtaking panoramic views.
Mount Mitchell State Park contains extensive spruce-fir forest, an ecosystem that is common in northern climes, but which is only found in a narrow band in the Appalachian Mountains. This natural community is characterized by evergreens, particularly red spruce and Fraser fir.
Some of the uncommon animals that inhabit Mount Mitchell are the endangered northern flying squirrel, New England cottontail, bobcat, and many species of salamanders. Some of the birds that breed here are more typical of northern conifer forests: red-breasted nuthatch, brown creeper, and golden-crowned kinglet.
Long before it was a State Park, Mount Mitchell was a popular tourist destination. In the 1920s, after the logging operations ceased on the mountain, the former logging railroad from the nearby town of Black Mountain was converted into a tourist train. Three years later, the rails were removed, and the rail bed became a motor toll road. For more than a decade, tourists visited the area along this route, until the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway put the toll road out of business.
The mountain was named in honor of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, an educator and scientist from Chapel Hill, who died while climbing the mountain in 1857 in his effort to prove it was the highest peak in eastern North America. The grave of Dr Mitchell lies next to the observation deck.
Click on the link below to hear more in a Living Traditions Moment
Park hours are:
November – February 8 am – 6 pm
March – April 8 am – 8 pm
May – August 8 am – 9 pm
September – October 8am – 8 pm
During the winter months, the Park is often inaccessible from the Parkway due to snow and ice. The Park is closed on Christmas Day.
Park office hours are 8 am – 5 pm daily. In the winter months, the office is closed on weekends.
There is no fee to enter the Park, but there is a charge for campsites.
Picnic shelters are offered for free on a first-come, first-served basis, but can be reserved in advance for $33 a day.
Mount Mitchell State Park is located off the Blue Ridge Parkway. At milepost 355.4, turn north on NC 128 and go 2.4 miles to the Park entrance.
Mount Mitchell State Park
2388 State Highway 128
Burnsville, NC 28714
(828) 675-4611
Tips:
Mount Mitchell Lookout Tower Trail Map
Photo Gallery
*Click on thumbnails for larger viewing and slideshow
Trail head: Fort Loudon, Tennessee
Distance: 0.6 miles
Duration: 31 minutes
Skill Level: Easy
Overview: On one of my sales trips I wanted to go on a hike and the locals told me to check out Fort Loudon in Tennessee. Being a history buff and seeing many forts across the east coast growing up. I went to go hike the trail.
Fort Loudoun was a British colonial-era fort located in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1756 and 1757 to help garner Cherokee support for the British at the outset of the Seven Years’ War, the fort was one of the first significant British outposts west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Fort Loudoun State Historic Park is 1,200-acres and is one of the earliest British fortifications on the western frontier, built in 1756. The fort was reconstructed during the Great Depression and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
During the French and Indian War (1754-1763) the British Colony of South Carolina felt threatened by French activities in the Mississippi Valley. To counter this threat, the Colony sent the Independent Company of South Carolina to construct and garrison what became Fort Loudoun. This move helped to ally the Overhill Cherokee Nation in the fight against the French and guaranteed the trade would continue between the Cherokee and South Carolina.
In the course of the fort’s four year existence, relations between South Carolina and the Cherokee Nation broke down. In August 1760, the Cherokee captured Fort Loudoun and its garrison. After the surrender in 1760, Fort Loudoun was never used again for any military purpose. It is thought the Cherokees destroyed the fort sometime shortly after the English marched away.
Nature reclaimed the site and there was no public recognition of the Fort until 1917. In November of that year the Colonial Dames of America placed a commemorative marker at the Fort Loudoun site. In 1933, the Tennessee General Assembly purchased the site of Fort Loudoun and created the Fort Loudoun Association to manage it. The Fort Loudoun Association ran the site for nearly 45 years until it became a Tennessee State Park in 1977.
Today, the reconstructed fort and the ruins of the 1794 Tellico Blockhouse overlook TVA’s Tellico Reservoir and the Appalachian Mountains.
Fort Loudoun State Park’s interpretative center offers information on the area’s history and artifacts that were excavated prior to the Fort’s reconstruction from the French and Indian War. There is an auditorium that features The Fort Loudoun Story, a 30 minute video about the history of the site.
Along with living history and monthly interpretive programs, the park hosts several popular seasonal events such as, the 18th Century Trade Faire in September and Christmas at Fort Loudoun which provide a living history of the fort.
Tips:
Fort Loudon TN Trail Map
Photo Gallery
*Click on thumbnails for larger viewing and slideshow
Figure 8 Loop Trail Map
Photo Gallery
*Click on thumbnails for larger viewing and slideshow
Tate Evans Park Trail Map
Photo Gallery
*Click on thumbnails for larger viewing and slideshow