Mile High Swinging Bridge

Friday, I headed to the mountains for a long and challenging day hike.  Parking at Boone Fork Trailhead, I took Tanawha Trail to enter Grandfather Mountain State Park and started off on Nuwati Trail.  In about a mile, I turned on Cragway Trail and started heading up in earnest.

It was really chilly when I had started, but soon took of my jacket as I warmed up quickly going steeply up.  About halfway up this trail was Top Crag View, which has one of the nicest views in the park.

The trail ended at Flat Rock View at the intersection with Daniel Boone Scout Trail.

I turned on that trail and continued heading steeply up.  Near the top, there were a couple ladders to climb to reach the summit.

I topped out at the summit of Calloway Peak, just under 6,000 feet above sea level.  A runner arrived shortly after me, he was the first other person I had seen on the trail.

Heading back down the other side, I made a quick stop at Watauga View.

It was moderately steep heading down to Calloway Gap and then was fairly flat for a short ways.  As I got close to Attic Window Peak, there was some rock scrambling and more great views from the trail.

After crossing Attic Window, the trail headed steeply down through a rocky draw, reminiscent of hiking in the Rocky Mountains.  Then from MacRae Gap, several more ladders to head back up.

Getting closer to the private attraction parking, I was seeing a lot more people and there was a bottleneck at the ladder to get up to the top of MacRae Peak.

I took a break and had an early lunch up here enjoying the view and talked to some guys who had hiked up Profile Trail.  I descended the ladder and continued down.

There were more traffic jams along the ladders heading down and I continued on to upper parking lot for the private attraction and hiked across the mile-high swinging bridge.  It was exceptionally crowded, even on a weekday, but wanted to say I crossed after a very challenging hike.

But it was so crowded, I didn't stay long and started making the hike back.  Past Attic Window, I made a short detour to see Indian House Cave.

I made another detour past Calloway Peak to see the plane crash, just next to the Raven's Roost campsite.

Then I stayed on Daniel Boone Scout Trail the rest of the way down.  There were some cute honey mushrooms growing on a stump.

Daniel Boone Scout Trail ended back at Tanawha Trail and I hiked back to the car.

On the way home, I stopped at Two Boros in Wilkesboro for dinner.

Cragway Fall Foliage Hike

Saturday, we headed back out to the mountains for some more fall foliage.  We headed west towards Boone and got to the Blue Ridge Parkway right around sunrise.  We made a quick stop at Stony Fork Overlook to watch.

We made another stop a short ways further at View Osborne Mountain.

Driving further southbound, we made one more quick stop at Price Lake.

The fall color was just beautiful and there was steam rising off the lake on this chilly morning.

After a couple pictures, we continued on to Boone Fork Parking to hike into Grandfather Mountain State Park.  We took Tanawha Trail to Daniel Boone Scout Trail and started heading up.  The first part isn't too steep and it was pleasantly cold.  In about 1.5 miles, we made it to Flat Rock View and enjoyed the nice views here.

Here we got on Cragway Trail and started heading down.  About half-way down the trail, we came to the fantastic Top Crag View.

The fall color was just about peak and the panoramic views were really phenomenal.

I think this has been the best fall color we've had in several years.

When we first arrived, we had the overlook to ourselves but soon some backpackers showed up so we continued on.

There were a number of other rocky crags along the trail to climb up and enjoy the view, though none could beat Top Crag.

Cragway Trail ended at Nuwati Trail along Boone Fork.  There were some bottle gentians blooming here.

A left turn on Nuwati Trail led just under a mile to Storyteller's Rock and one last beautiful view in the park.

Then we took Nuwati Trail back to Tanawha Trail and the Boone Fork parking area.

It was still early enough so we continued on the parkway.  The traffic was like RTP in rush hour, but at least we could enjoy the views around Lynn Cove Viaduct.  We continued to Linville Falls, where not surprisingly, parking was a mess, but we caught someone leaving and took their spot.  We took Duggers Creek Trail to Linville Gorge Trail and headed out to the Plunge Basin Overlook for a view of Linville Falls.

The lighting wasn't great, but the falls were beautiful surrounded by fall color.  It was rather crowded so we didn't stay long.  On the way back, we stopped at Duggers Creek at a less crowded spot below some scenic little cascades.

A rhododendron had fallen and blocked the view of the waterfall, but the little cascades were very pretty.

After a nice break, we got out of there.

Heading back northbound on the parkway, we made a couple stops along the way.  First we stopped at Camp Creek Overlook.  There is no view here, but the fall foliage was really pretty.

A short fisherman's path led down to Camp Creek.

Our next stop was at Stack Rock Parking Area.  We had to walk a short ways up the road for a very nice view.

In the direction, we could see Grandfather Mountain and the swinging bridge.

Driving on, we made another stop at View Wilson Creek Valley.

Walking up the road to Boulder Field Overlook, we had another view of Grandfather Mountain.

Finally, we made one last stop at Sims Pond Overlook.

From here, we headed to Boone for dinner at Booneshine.  It was very busy and a wait for the restaurant, so we got barbecue and drinks from the food truck and ate outside with Alex.  He made friends with another dog named Gracie.  After dinner, we checked into the Quality Inn and retired for the evening.

Calloway Peak

For the holiday weekend, we took Alex out to Boone to finish the State Parks passport challenge.  First, we stopped at the interim park office for Grandfather Mountain State Park to get his passport stamped.

Then we headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at Boone Fork parking area.  Here, we took Tanawha Trail to Daniel Boone Scout Trail and started hiking up the mountain.  There wasn't much snow at first, but some little ice formations were popping out of the ground.

In about 1.5 miles, we came to Flat Rock View.

Scrambling out on the rocks, there were great views from here.

We stopped and had a snack up here and took a short break before the climbing really started.

Continuing on, the trail got steeper and there were some nice icicles along the trail.

The trail was pretty icy and there was a dusting of snow, but not as much as we hoped.

Near the summit, we came to the ladders.

It was tricky getting Alex up this part, but he's a good rock climber.  Soon we got to the summit of Calloway Peak, the highest point on Grandfather Mountain.

The views from up here were great.  There was rime ice on the north-facing portion of the summit.

I continued on to Watauga View with more great views, including Sugar Mountain.

We had lunch at the summit then started making our way back down.  At Flat Rock, we turned on Cragway Trail to make a loop going back.

There were cool views from Top Crag and we could see Calloway Peak towering above.

The trail was rocky, but at least we were heading downhill.

Where the trail ended, a turn on Nuwati Trail led back to Tanawha Trail.  At Boone Fork, we made a turn on Asutsi Trail and hiked below the parkway.  At the trailhead on US-221, we turned right along the road a short ways to Green Mountain Falls.

The water level was high and there were a bunch of icicles along the waterfall.  There was also a lower section below the road that was quite scenic.

It was visible from the road and I scrambled down to the base for a view straight on.

After some picture, we hiked back Asutsi Trail and Tanawha Trail.  Boone Fork was scenic as we crossed on the footbridge.

It was just a short ways further back to the car.

On the way to Boone, we called in a pizza at Mellow Mushroom then checked into the Quality Inn.  We brought the pizza back to the room for dinner then went to bed early.