Blue Ridge Parkway

After living in Western North Carolina for my entire life, I finally visited the Blue Ridge Parkway which has an entrance sitting at a comfortable 30 minutes from my home in Franklin, NC.  To be honest, I had no idea how massive the parkway actually is nor how frequently it is driven for views alone. It travels along with the Blue Ridge Mountains for 469 miles. Stretching through both North Carolina and Virginia, the Blue Ridge Parkway sees about 15 million visitors every year.  It is probably one of the most common trips to take if you’re looking for beautiful fall colors and a feeling like you’re on top of the world.

Stephen and I went in late August to see the fading summer colors and catch a clear view from the top of the parkway. We entered in Sylva, NC and drove for about 30-40 minutes to the Devil’s Courthouse.  According to Cherokee lore, a giant devil figure known as Judaculla held court within the caves beneath the rock face.

Hike Distance: .5 mile. Paved and with stairs at the top.
Near To: Asheville, North Carolina and Sylva, North Carolina
Difficulty: Moderate to strenuous
Who to bring: Fit for all ages though the trail is very steep.  Pets are more than welcome.  Stay on the trail to avoid damaging rare plant life.

The hike could be considered moderate to strenuous as it is a  stark uphill climb the entire way with large stairs at the top of the rock formation.  However, the views are absolutely worth the huffing and puffing to get to the top.

We were lucky enough to visit on a day with a few clouds and crisp blue skies.  The view atop Devil’s Courthouse will take your breath away.  Stop at mile marker 422.4 for a step into history and Appalachian lore.

We next stopped at Black Balsam Knob Mountain for a wide open view that is declared a must see of North Carolina.  The road was crumbling, cracking, and often led smaller cars to bottom out.  Thankfully the signs encouraged that the knob would be closed for road renovations this month.  We’d be happy to go again and have a smoother trip of getting to the top of the knob.

Hike Distance: .25 to get to the beginning of the bald- 3 miles worth of bald to hike
Near To: Asheville, North Carolina and Sylva, North Carolina
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Who to bring: Fit for all ages, though the trail has some steepness for those not adapt at climbing. Pet friendly!

Despite car woes, the hike up the knob was a beautiful and easy climb and made both my husband and I feel as if we should be barefoot and running from Ring Wraiths.

Filled with brilliant yellow, endless green, and gray stone faces the knob was an absolutely astonishing experience.

The bees were bumbling about the flowers and the wind cast a gentle ripple on the drying grass atop the bald.  Despite the semi-crowded trail, we were able to feel as if we were the only ones standing amongst the ancient giants of the Appalachian area.

Hiking Rufus Morgan

With an influx of band camp, traveling extravaganzas, and school starting I have been one busy teacher and writer.  I have also become a procrastinating photographer.  It was after a trip to Charleston this weekend that I uploaded the photos from my camera and realized that I had not one, not two… BUT THREE trips still waiting to be edited and written about! Yikes!

Let me go back a few weeks to a trip I took with my three college friends to Rufus Morgan Falls here in Franklin, North Carolina. 

Hike Distance: About 1 mile loop or return
Near To: Franklin, North Carolina
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Who to bring: Fit for all ages, though the trail has some steepness for those not adapt at climbing. Pet friendly!

The hike is a popular spot for those visiting or those who live in Franklin.  The ever changing forest canopy and foliage make the trail interesting and unique each season you visit. In late spring and early summer the ground is coated with beautiful wild flowers of blue. My friends and I visited in early July and therefore missed the flowers, but still had a lush beautiful forest ground to see and play around in.

The trail is rocky with several footbridges that offer awesome photo opportunities and a quick rest with your toes in the crisp mountain river.

Along the way you can see different smaller waterfalls and cascades that are worthy appreciating.  It is a chance to taste some cool and fresh mountain water (as fresh as it gets), and cool off from the hot summer sun.

Eventually you’ll come to Rufus Morgan itself and the beauty cannot be denied.  The way the waterfall simply emerges inside the foliage will take your breath away.  Standing at the base, you have to crane your neck to see all the way to the top and even then you have to imagine the winding stream it comes from. The base has several fallen trees that crowd the bottom of the falls, but it only adds to the raw beauty of this mountain gem.

Give Rufus Morgan a look if you’re traveling in the Appalachian area. It is well worth a quick afternoon or morning hike.  You can always stop by Franklin for a quick bite and a tour around downtown if your visit the area.

Happy hiking to all!

 

Waning Summer Sun

Going back to school always leaves me feeling as if I haven’t accomplished a single thing during my summer vacation.  I am not the kind of person who needs to be busy 100% of the time, but I do like to feel good about my time spent during free days. My philosophy of time spent coincides with the adage:

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”- Bertrand Russell or is that John Lennon?

Either way, the quote summarizes my feeling on spare time and how it is used.

The other thing that makes my palms sweaty, my head itchy, and my stomach… achey is when I feel as if my life is spiraling out of control and I will wake up years from now lamenting the fact that I did nothing.  This has been a nightmare to rival anything Stephen King has written, and I finally started getting over that fear.  Whether I am a teacher, a writer, blogger, or a bum I will have done exactly as I was meant to and as I wanted to in my life. Traveling has allowed me to see that there are a million options and a million possibilities to each and every single moment of life.

“When you’re a kid, they tell you it’s all… Grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.”- Elton Pope (Doctor Who)

It is SO much better.

 

Cross the Country

The space between my last update and now has been an adventure and a journey all its own.  Journey is defined as “a course of traveling; one’s path in life” and derives from the old French word journee meaning “a days work or travel”.  Looking this up made me feel better about all those sparse days where I didn’t update or I didn’t sit down at my computer.  Each and every single day, while not documented, was a journey and I was a traveler despite the fact that I never stepped foot outside my town.

Rather than taking a single step outside of my small town of Franklin, North Carolina, I took a plane all the way to a new state and a new city.  Say hello to Seattle, Washington.

Seattle is known for many things and one of the things my husband most enjoyed on our trip was their coffee culture.  Seattle is a center for coffee roasting and coffee supply management for the U.S. While I don’t drink much coffee, my husband stated that he did not have a single bad cup of of java the entire trip.  Our most notable place to get coffee was at Cafe Ladro.

They hosted some seriously delicious treats such as a sweet potato scone, a blueberry danish, and a hazelnut coffee cake.  Their hot chocolate was to die for and they did not lack for presentation!

On our first free night in Seattle, we walked 40 minutes through some interesting streets to get to a place that was so foreign to me it might as well have been from out of this world.  I knew of arcades and I knew of bars, never had I heard of a barcade.  Entertainment is never far off in this city and the variety of entertainment is enough to keep you busy for weeks on end.  We came to John John’s Game Room where you can get any drink you like and play a huge selection of games including Street Fighter II, TMNT, and pinball machines of all types.

The next must stop location of Seattle is Pike’s Place Market.  This is an awesome experience whether you’re in it for the shopping, the food, the views, or the people watching.  It offers a little bit of something for everyone. My husband is not a fan of seafood, but even he got lost in the culture of preparing and selling fish.  Buy a bouquet of fresh flowers and munch on some fresh cherries while you explore.

 

 

 

If you’re interested in some serious eating, people watching, and a lot of history, you should take the time to come visit Seattle.  My husband and I are prepared to make a change and visit as often as we can.  The culture is amazing and the experience is different each and every block you turn down.

If you’re interested in learning more about Seattle and what it has to offer, feel free to ask in the comments or jog on over to my Flickr where I’ll go more into depth about each my photographs and all of our adventures. There’s an Underground Tour, great Chinese food, and views from the Space Needle!

 

Lost in Panthertown Valley

If you visit the Panthertown Valley website, it says that the site is “is one of the most spectacular areas in the southeast.” After having visited last weekend, I can definitely say that these words are true.

Nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina, Panthertown Valley is a convenient location to Cashiers, Sylva, Highlands, and Franklin. With over 10,000 acres to explore, Panthertown Valley is a place that will offer fun an adventure for limitless trips. We spent five hours, knowingly or not, scaling mountains and swimming beneath waterfalls.

Our first location, and main attraction of the day, was Schoolhouse Falls. It is about twenty foot, but hugged up against a mountain and in a clearing that was perfect for a quick lunch and a freezing cold swim. The coolest thing about this spot was that there were a few people there, but the space was open enough for exploration that you didn’t feel crowded.  One hiker enjoyed reading “The Journey of Socrates” upon a rock. I’ve never heard of the book, but now I want to give it a read. Another hiker was giving his dog a refreshing swim and play in the creek with as many sticks as he could find.

After Schoolhouse Falls, we wanted to find two smaller falls around the area. Mac’s Gap Falls and Pothole Falls.  The directions seemed simple enough and we figured we could cut some corners by taking some other trails.  Turns out that when the website says “bring a map”, they mean… Bring. A. Map. We ended up hiking through three or so miles of mud and dirt and beautiful green foliage to find ourselves at an intersection.  Two guys were taking a break and offered for us to use their map. We had put all our faith in trust in Matt, a friend of ours. Turns out his innate sense of direction was taking a vacation of its own that day.

We were all the way across the park. I mean. All the way was in the next ten steps would take us to the opposite end’s parking lot. Exhausted but still determined, we put our faith in a new leader. A new leader arose with my husband and we ended up right back at Schoolhouse Falls.  From there, we took a trail that he swore would take us to the two new falls.

This trail went from nice and flat to an uphill scramble.  Part of the reason I am doing these hikes is to get in better shape and feel better about myself.  Until this point in my life, I never understood people exercising until they throw up. My head was swimming, my back and chest ached, and I thought I wasn’t going to make it.  I felt like trash about myself, but my husband kept urging me onward and encouraging me.  With his help, we made it to the end of the trail and FINALLY we made it to…

… the top of Little Green Mountain? Yes.  We had somehow ignored our instincts and found that we had hiked 2.5 miles up a mountain to be greeted with this amazing view.  It was no waterfall, but it was something beyond imagining.  Those tiny specks of color on the rock? Those are people.  I cannot even begin to explain how vast and open this clearing was.  Nothing was better than the feeling I had when coming to the top of this mountain. While I had to stop more than a two year old on a road trip, I had made it and I felt great about myself.

Our friends were excited too, but they knew a more valuable use for the rock face.  Needless to say, it was an awesome stop and well worth the getting lost.

We descended the mountain, traveled back the right way, and ended the day with a rousing group song of Bohemian Rhapsody and several bottles of water.

As always, remember that you can find extra photos and stories on my Flickr.