Rainy Day on Blue Ridge Parkway

Sunday morning, we woke up to a light drizzle.  We hiked to the car and drove to West Jefferson to get breakfast and then headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Driving northbound, we soon came to Doughton Park.  As we passed Bluff Mountain, there were a couple of beautiful ephemeral waterfalls crashing down below the road and down the mountain, eventually flowing into Meadow Creek.

I hopped out of the car and walked along the stone wall to see the impressive drops that only existed because it was so rainy.

Continuing on, we made a stop at Brinegar Cabin.  It was closed but looked pretty in the fog.

And we wouldn't be getting any long distance views today.  Continuing on, we made a stop at Devil's Garden Overlook.

Although cloudy, the views were very pretty.

Fall color along the parkway was really popping.

We continued a little further to Bullhead Mountain Overlook, which also had cloudy views.

A little further, we made a stop near Horse Cove Branch.  There's a waterfall along the creek here, but it was too cloudy to see anything at all.  We could definitely hear it in the high water even if it wasn't visible.  Our next stop was at Cumberland Knob Recreation Area.  We waited for a few minutes for the rain to subside then set out on Gully Creek Trail.  It descended very steeply to its namesake at the base of Gully Creek Waterfall.

It's a small waterfall, but scenic in high water.

So high, in fact, that the creek crossing immediately downstream would have been a wade.  With the rain picking back up, we decided to just head back.  Up at the top, I made a quick run to Cumberland Knob, but not much of a view here.

Then we hiked back to the parking lot.

From here, we continued north on the parkway into Virginia.  We drove about 10 miles or so to Piedmont Overlook.

Too cloudy for much of a view down to the Piedmont but the parkway was pretty in the fog.

From here, we turned back and headed back into North Carolina.  We made a quick stop at Little Glade Mill Pond.

A short trail led around the small pond and the fall color here was really beautiful.

Further down the parkway, we made another stop at the seasonal waterfalls flowing down Bluff Mountain.

It was a really spectacular sight and very rare I suspect.  From here, we headed back to New River State Park.  The rain had finally died down, so we took Alex for a hike down the River Run Trail.  The water level of the river was really up.  The trail passed by the Stump Family Home Site.

The trail then climbed back up and ended at Hickory Trail, which led back towards camp to make a loop.

The fall color was really beautiful, even with the cloudy views.

We made it back to camp just before sunset.

Everything was too wet to bother with a fire and the rain started back after dark, so we just went to bed.