Saturday Excursion

After morning chores Saturday I fixed us a picnic lunch of potato salad, tomato and cucumber salad and a chicken salad sandwich for Jim.  We packed the cooler and headed south on the Pisgah Highway (151).  What a tortuous, winding road!  With some switchbacks and at one point almost a pigtail.  When Jim made the reservations he was told 'if you miss the campground there's no place to turn around'.  Now we know what was  meant by this statement.  We could not have taken the rig over this route and signs indicating this were posted.  We would have had to back up....a long way!

One of the first spots of beauty was this little waterfall

 

Fortunately, right around the bend was a place to pull over so I could snap this shot.  All along the drive there were turnouts so you could get out and enjoy the views.  For the most part the foliage prevented any pictures being taken and we just continued our drive.

We finally met up with the Blue Ridge Parkway and continued on it reaching the top of Little Pisgah Mountain, not to be confused with Pisgah Mountain which has a large transmission tower on it.

From there we continued on to Buck Springs Gap which has some spectacular views and a walk up to where the Vanderbilts had their lodge

The trail was an easy one with steps and tree roots to traverse.

Don't know the name of these little beauties but there were several clumps of them along the trail

As you can see, we're at one of the highest spots in the Pisgah National Forest

Just south of here is the Pisgah Inn where we drove through the parking lot but didn't get out of the truck.  We continued a little farther south looking for a spot to have our lunch and we found it at Funnel Top!

As we sat on our tailgate in this overlook we had this view.  Many vehicles stopped, folks jumped out and commented on our lovely spot for lunch, snapped a picture and drove off.  As we were finishing up a hawk decided to entertain us.  It was lovely watching him soar and float on the thermals 

Back in truck and continuing our drive we kept seeing more and more beautiful sights.  Finally we left the Blue Ridge Parkway and continued south on Highway 276 also known as the Pisgah Highway

All along this part of the drive there were numerous places to stop to view the streams and rivers that were on both sides of the road.  It being a holiday weekend there were a lot of folks taking advantage of the forest and taking in the sights.  The picture above is probably South Fork Mills River, but don't quote me on that. 

Our next stop was Looking Glass Falls .  What a beautiful waterfall.  There were dozens of people wading, climbing and just enjoying the cool water

It's 60 feet tall and refreshing to stand near.  I can only imagine how it would feel in the hot, summer months

Just before we reached civilization again we came across Davidson River Recreational Area.  It has camping and activities for water, hiking and just enjoying nature.  From what we saw, a lot of folks were doing just that.

Once we reached the end of the highway we found ourselves in Brevard so we turned our truck northward on the Asheville highway (280).  On our left was the forest and the right was a valley with a lot of pretty views.

Once we got into the Asheville area we made a couple stops and shopped before heading home.  We were home by 1600 and had an awesome time!

For dinner we had ravioli and a salad.  Some TV and games rounded out our day.  We both slept very well in the cooler temperatures