Grandfather Mountain Day!

Day 14 – (Friday, 10-19-12) Grandfather Mountain Day

We woke to a sunny, chilly morning. The plans for the day were to drive up to Grandfather Mountain to see the views and do some hiking on the mountain. The dogs were loaded up and ready to go. The drive up the mountain was very pretty, with the leaves all in autumn colors. It had been at least 30 years since I was here, and it felt great to be back. The road was long and winding up the mountain. There was an admission fee to the G.F. “attraction” since it is owned by a non-profit preservation organization. The main attraction is at the top of the mountain, where there is a gift shop and a swinging walk bridge to cross over to another rocky peak. The pictures we posted show how awesome it is up there.

We parked in a lower parking lot and hiked up to the higher level. The dogs and us enjoyed this hike, even though it was rocky and a little steep. It was only .4 mile up. We went up to the bridge crossing. The wind was blowing pretty strong and the bridge was slightly moving. The bridge is 1 mile high and quite scary for a person with a fear of heights. The dogs and Kurt walked in front of me and were excited about the walk.  The movement of the bridge kind of creeped me out, I had to hold onto the rail. Once on the other side, the boys and I sat on a rock wall and waited while Kurt walked out onto the rock ledge to take pictures. As usual, the dogs got so much attention from people up on the rock, especially the kids.

After crossing back over the bridge, Kurt and Kody went on a short hike on the Grandfather trail. It seemed too steep to take Kirby, so we waited for them on a bench in a sunny place. Again, Kirby got tons of attention! We hiked back down to the parking lot and rested there with snacks and water. Then we decided to go on another “moderate” hike, “Black Rock”, that started from the parking lot. The hike was more challenging than we thought (well for me and Kirby anyway). We hiked back in about 1 mile and I decided to turn back at that point, since Kirby seemed to be tiring and my left knee was hurting. Kurt and Kody continued, but also turned around later, as Kody wanted to go back too. I think we have totally “worn out” the dogs. They are just not used to this much activity, especially since they are used to sleeping most of the day. We then headed back down to the campground.

Later, we drove into downtown “Banner Elk” to check out the setup for the weekend’s “Wooly Worm Festival”. The town traffic was already in gridlock, we turned around and went back to the RV. Kurt built a campfire and we grilled chicken. It was getting very chilly outside and we went inside the RV for the evening.