MST Hike to the Plott Balsams

Sunday, I had breakfast and made the short drive to Soco Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Despite the name, there is absolutely no overlook here, but it does provide access to the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which I took eastbound.  Some fly poison was flowering along the trail.

The trail headed up parallel to the parkway but was mostly gradual.

It was a little late for wildflowers, but some fire pink were still blooming.

In about 2 miles, I crossed over Howard's Bridge across a small tributary.

There was one spot to stop and take a break with a nice view.  The overlook was boxed in by trees on the side but a nice long range view.

Soon, the trail reached Waterrock Knob and I took the trail to head up to the top.  On our last visit, it was fogged in, but today there were great views.

I had a snack up here and then started heading back.

At the visitor center, I walked down the spur road to View Browning Knob.  The plane crash was on this mountain, but had recently been removed by the park service.

Crossing the parkway, I picked up an unofficial trail that headed up Yellow Face, another 6000-foot peak in the Plott Balsams.

I made it to the top, but there was no view up here, so I turned around and started heading back.

Where the MST split from Waterrock Knob Trail to head back down the mountain, there was a nice overlook and stopped to enjoy the view.

I saw some mountain woodsorrel along the trail.

I continued past Soco Gap on the MST another mile or so.  There was some Indian pipe along the trail.

The trail eventually runs along gravel roads, so I turned around after a while and headed back to the car.

I went back to Maggie Valley and had dinner at Legends, right next to the hotel.

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.