On to Grandfather Mountain

Day 12 – (Wednesday, 10-17-12) Heading to Grandfather Mountain

The RV was packed, unhooked and ready to go by 10:30. We headed out on our trip to Banner Elk, NC. The drive was beautiful, mostly on 4-lane highways through the mountains. The last 30 miles of the trip was on a two-lane road, going through small towns and mountains. It was one of the best drives yet. We had to stop in a tiny little town to refuel. Kurt went into the store to pay and the people were so friendly and asked where he was heading. These are the best towns in this country. Most small town people are very friendly and genuine. It’s such a breath of fresh air to find people like this.

We finally pulled into the Grandfather Mountain Campground. We were quite surprised to find such a beautiful campground. It was setup in levels, going up the hillside. Our site backs up to a huge grassy field, our backyard that the boys totally love! We also have a wooden deck for a front patio and a camp fire ring setup behind our space. The leaves up here are at peak fall foliage change. This area is a series of small towns. Banner Elk is a nice area and Boone has changed SO much since I was up here about 30 years ago.

The weather here is so much colder due to the higher altitude, about 4000 feet. It was about 45 degrees over night.

Day 13 – (Thursday, 10-18-12) Chilly, dreary day; great hike!

We woke up to a cold, cloudy, foggy morning. After discussing the plan for the day we decided to just go on a hike. We wanted to drive up to Grandfather Mountain and hike to the top. However, with the fog and clouds, we wouldn’t have any view. The trail we took went up to Grandfather Mountain, from the East side, is called the Profile View Trail. The trail was 2.7 miles one way, but very steep and with a major altitude change. We went from 4000 feet up to 5200 feet during the hike. It’s tough with the altitude, you wouldn’t think that it affects your breathing that much, but it does.  It was also very windy and chilly. The boys stayed at the RV while we hiked, due to the strenuous nature of this hike. When we reached the Profile overlook, we realized that this is the great vantage point to see the “profile” of the “Grandfather face”. We saw the rock face profile and got a couple of pictures before the fog rolled in thicker and we couldn’t even see the face.  We decided to head back down the mountain as the weather was deteriorating quickly. As we went down the mountain, the weather was much different. When we got back to the RV, the skies were clearer, but it was still chilly.

Arriving back at the RV, the boys were very happy to see us. They came out for a run around our grassy “backyard”. We ate lunch and then Kurt wanted to take a ride up to Blowing Rock to check out the area and hike up to the actual craggy blowing rock. With the weather getting worse, we decided just to drive to Boone and look around. There is a fairly new mountain bike trail in that area. We drove out there and Kurt looked around the course, thinking he might be able to go bike there within the next couple of days.

We drove back to the campground and Kurt built a camp fire. Later we prepared a dinner of leftovers. After dinner and watching some TV, we went to bed very tired. The weather is supposed to be sunnier tomorrow, but still a high of 60. Tonight is supposed to get down to 37 degrees.