Rich Mountain Hike

Saturday, we headed to cooler weather in the mountains for Amaroq's fourth birthday.  Parts of the parkway are still closed, so we had to drive to Boone and take the alternate route to Moses Cone Memorial Park, where the carriage roads are stroller friendly.  Parking along Shulls Mill Road, we took the spur up to Rich Mountain Road in an open field.

Following the road up Rich Mountain, we passed the Mountains-to-Sea Trail as the road circled around the summit.

As it looped around, there was another open area where we could see the top despite the clouds.

The circles became tighter as we approached the summit.

A short rocky path led up to another open area at the top, where Amaroq had a snack and Harper ran around for a bit.

After a break, we started heading down.  There were some Indian pipe along the trail.

Harper was very interested in some of the cows we saw grazing along the trail, but threw a temper-tantrum when we didn't let her pet them.  We spotted some more summer wildflowers along the trail on the hike down towards Trout Lake.

Yellow false fox-glove had really pretty flowers.

Near Trout Lake, the arrowwood was producing bright red berries.

We continued around Trout Lake and headed to the Manor House before finishing our hike.

On the way home, we stopped at Booneshine for a late lunch.

Blowing Rock Hikes

Sunday morning, we headed up to Blowing Rock for breakfast and then parked at Glen Burney Trail.  It was a chilly morning as we hiked down the trail following New Year's Creek.  Some cool ice needles formed on slopes along the trail.

Shortly, we came to The Cascades and I scrambled down to the base.

No snow, but there were some cool icicles around the rocks and branches at the base.

Continuing on, we passed the top of Glen Burney Falls and I went out to the overlook.  In winter, there's a cluttered view before the leaves pop out.

A little further down the trail, we came to the split and first went right to the base of Glen Burney Falls.

In the other direction, the trail descended to Glen Marie Falls.  Most of the way down is a big rock with a nice view of the upper portion of the falls.

I then went down to the base, but I think the view from the rock is the best.

Then we made the hike back to the car.

From here, we headed to Moses Cone Memorial Park and stopped at the manor house.  We hiked over to Trout Lake and headed up the switchbacks a ways.

After a couple switchbacks we turned around and headed back.

It was a little early to head back so we headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway to stop at a few overlooks.  Our first stop was at Yonahlossee Overlook with a nice view of Grandfather Mountain.

Walking up the road a bit, there was a nice distant view of the parkway.

The next stop was at View Wilson Creek Valley, looking down into the valley with so many waterfalls.

Finally, we made a quick stop at Pilot Ridge Overlook.  The view is kind of cluttered, but could see Blowing Rock in the distance.

We continued to Blowing Rock and took US-321 south and stopped at Happy Valley Brewing for dinner.

Early Fall Color at Moses Cone

Saturday, we took Alex and Harper to the mountains to catch some early fall foliage.  We got on the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Blowing Rock and made a quick stop at Yadkin Valley Overlook.

The skies were clearing but the clouds hanging over the valley were really beautiful.  We then continued on to the Manor at Moses Cone Memorial Park and parked.  After getting Harper in the stroller, we followed Watkins Road to Deer Park Road and headed down towards Bass Lake.

There were some nice Indian oyster mushrooms growing in a stump.

At the bottom, we got on the Bass Lake Trail to make a loop around the beautiful lake.

It was still a little early but the fall color was looking very nice.

There was some agueweed flowering along the lake.

Almost around the lake, there was a great view of the manor house way above.

After finishing the loop around the lake, we took Duncan Road back up to the manor house.

Harper's stroller did very well on the carriage trails and she seemed to enjoy the hike.

From here, we made a short drive to Julian Price Memorial Park and managed to get a parking spot at the lake.

The fall color was really pretty, but Alex and Harper were getting tired.

So we only went as far as the boat rental and enjoyed the lake for a few minutes before heading back.

Moses Cone Bass Lake Hike

Saturday, we took Alex to the mountains for the weekend to escape the heat in Raleigh.  Our first stop was in Seven Devils at Otter Falls Trail.  After getting our stuff together, we took Red-Blue-Orange Trails to Otter Falls.

It was a sunny day so it was hard to get a good picture, but it's a pretty waterfall and flowers were blooming around it.

We went upstream a bit to see some scenic cascades along Valley Creek and take a break.

On the hike back, we took the other direction of the loop trails.  The Orange Trail followed Valley Creek downstream past the falls for a short ways before looping back up.

Yellow Trail is a short one-way trail that splits from Blue Trail.

Mountain laurel and galax were flowering along the trail.

It ended at an overlook above Valley Creek but there was too much foliage for much of a view.

Then we took the other end of the Blue Trail loop back to Red Trail.

Some fire pink was flowering along the trail.

The Red Trail loop ended back at the parking lot.

From here, we headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and parked at the manor at Moses Cone Memorial Park.  We hiked past the manor on Duncan Trail and followed it down towards Bass Lake.

There were oxeye daisies and other wildflowers blooming in the open areas.

Some great spangled fritillary butterflies were enjoying the flowers as well.

Further down the trail, we some some big hemlock varnish shelf mushrooms growing.

More butterflies on a nice summer day.

Down towards the lake, we started to see mountain laurel blooming.

And there were a couple jack in the pulpits remaining.

Duncan Trail ended at Bass Lake and we took the trail around the scenic lake.

A lot of fragrant water lilies were floating in the lake.

At the north end of the lake was Heart Pond, a little double pond that the Cones built.

Finishing up the loop, there were great views of Flat Top Manor way above the lake.

On the way back up, we hiked around the Maze, a winding carriage road.

It ended up near the Apple Barn.

From here we took Deer Park Trail back up towards the parking area.

Some fire pink were blooming along the trail.

It was after noon by this point and we had worked up an appetite, so headed to Booneshine for an early dinner.  After dinner, we stopped at Brookshire Park to walk off the food and beer.  The South Fork New Greenway headed downstream along the river for just under a mile to the end.

There were some common ninebark flowering along the river.

On the hike back, I spotted some southern blue flag irises along the trail.

We finished back up at the park.

From here, we drove south on US-321 towards Lenoir with a short detour to see Silvervale Falls.

It's a scenic waterfall, but unfortunately has been heavily vandalized with graffiti.  We finished up the drive to Lenoir and checked into the Red Roof Inn.