Waterrock Knob MST Hike

Saturday, we took Alex to the mountains for a rainy Labor Day weekend.  We drove past Asheville and Waynesville and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Our first stop was a quick one at View Wesner Bald.

The sky was really beautiful.  Then we continued on to Waterrock Knob so Alex could complete another hike for #mst40hikes.

It was very cloudy when we arrived.  We took the Waterrock Knob trail nearly to the top, then took an unofficial trail that led to Browning Knob.  Near the summit of this subpeak, another path led a short ways down to an old plane crash from the 1980s.

Due to weather and alcohol, the small plane crashed, killing the occupants and the terrain is too rough to completely remove the wreckage.

Although cloudy, the area around the plane crash was really beautiful.  I spotted a cute orange amanita mushroom.

Lots of ferns and moss gave the forest an ethereal feel.

After a break here, we headed back to Waterrock Knob.  The clouds were clearing, but still no view up here.

So we continued down the mountain.

The overlook at the end of the paved trail had real nice views now.

Some yellow jewelweed was flowering.

Where the MST split to go westbound, I walked a couple hundred feet to a nice overlook.

Then we continued back down to the parking area where the skies had cleared to reveal beautiful views.

We sat at a picnic table for lunch.

After lunch, we headed eastbound on MST for Alex's hike.

There were more wildflowers blooming along the trail, including some interesting pink turtlehead.

The trail had a number of openings with nice views of the parkway and surrounding mountains.

Sandy spotted a bumblebee collecting nectar from some type of flower.

We also found a huge patch of honey mushrooms growing on a tree.

Near the end, the trail passed a small tributary of North Fork Scott Creek.

The turnaround point for our hike was just across the street at Fork Ridge Overlook.

From here, we hiked back to the visitor center.

We headed northbound on the parkway, making a few stops along the way.  First was View Mount Lyn Lowry.

There was too much foliage for a view of Woodfin Cascades.  We next stopped at the Orchards Overlook.

There was too much foliage to actually see the orchards below, we did see a lot of thistle flowering.

Continuing on, we made another stop at View Village of Saunook, but again too much foliage to see the village.

Finally, we made one last stop at Caney Fork Overlook.

The view was pretty nice and the road passes by a cool cliff at the overlook.

From here, we went into town and got take-out from Hawg Wild to eat at Ecusta Brewing.  Then we headed to North Mills River Campground to set up camp for the evening.