Chimneys and NC Wall

In the morning, we packed up camp and headed back to Linville Gorge via the entrance for Table Rock. It’s a long gravel road up the mountain and very dusty in the dry conditions. The cars were covered in dust by the time we reached the parking area. Rather than hike to Table Rock, which was very crowded on a nice fall weekend, we hiked in the opposite direction towards the Chimneys and the NC Wall.

We hiked on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail south from the parking lot towards the Chimneys.

This is one of the most scenic hikes in Linville Gorge. After a short hike through a forested area, the trail leads along an exposed ridge line with fantastic views of the gorge and the many beautiful rock formations and outcrops that line the rim of the gorge.

A large group of rock climbers were climbing near the Chimneys, so to get some solitude and not disturb them, we had to look around for a nice place to climb up.

We found a steep climb that leads up to a great overlook on the Chimneys.

The climb up was steep, but short, and we had to climb through a beautiful rock arch to get up there.

We stopped and had lunch here and climbed around to enjoy the views from different angles. To the east, we could see the rolling foothills and to the west we could see across the gorge with stunning cliffs lining the west side.

In the distance, the outline of the mighty Black Mountains could be seen in the distance. Fall color did not seem to be quite peaking yet and there was a lot of green left still visible (although much of this was from evergreen trees). However, there were many beautiful patches of bright colors.

When we finished lunch, we climbed back down and followed the MST for a little while longer, taking an easy-to-miss side trail that leads down to the NC Wall. This unofficial trail is the Amphitheater Trail and is not shown on maps. It leads from the MST down to the Amphitheater, a canyon in the cliff face of the gorge.

It's another area popular with rock climbers and had truly fantastic views.

A small patch of colorful trees down in the Amphitheater contrasted beautifully against the rugged grey cliffs. Further to the south, we could Shortoff Mountain and the end of the Linville River, where it flows into Lake James. From here, we hiked along the North Carolina Wall Trail, parallel to the MST, but several hundred feet below. This is another unofficial trail.

The NC Wall is sparsely vegetated and so provides some of the best views of the gorge.

Much of the interior of the gorge is forested, with the river dividing the gorge in half.

But there are a few fantastic rock towers sticking up from dense vegetation and providing a beautiful contrast.

Almost immediately, we saw the Sphinx rising out from the canyon floor among the dense vegetation.

Towards the end of the trail, we saw the Camel, another rock formation that looked surprisingly like the animal.

Altogether, we stopped at a three or four spots to enjoy the views and get some pictures and then took the trail back up to the MST and took this back to the parking lot. Although it was only about a four mile loop, we stopped so frequently that it took quite a while. We had initially thought about hiking up to Table Rock, but it would be crowded and it was getting late. And we were getting hungry and knew that our favorite restaurant, Las Salsas in Morganton was not far away. So we finished our hiking and drove to Morganton for dinner before heading back to the Raleigh area.