I was out of town for the last Our World Tuesday so I'm using shots from that road trip to the NC mountains.
The first 8 shots were taken on the Elk River Falls trail on Sunday October 13, 2013.
We lucked out Sunday because it stopped raining after we checked into our motel in Spruce Pine, NC in time for this hike.
This was a short hike but it always takes me a while when I'm watching my step over tree roots and rocks.
It's nice to have a short hike after the road trip to where we are staying.
It was fun to see the autumn foliage which covered a wide range since we went to both the southern and northern ends of the NC mountains during this vacation and some places were further along than others in terms of fall color.
I love waterfalls although it was sad to hear on the local news that a man slipped and fell over a waterfall and died the same day as this hike.
The fatal accident wasn't at any of the falls we went to but watching the news and hearing about how his companion had to leave and go get help made me feel bad for him and the woman that was with him. They weren't able to find him until the next day and then it took a long time to recover his body because it was hard to get to.
Not a very cheerful subject but all I could think of was how hard it would be for me to leave Bill without trying to save him even though I wouldn't be able to save him in a situation like that and the woman did the right thing to go for help. I spotted the quilt barn below from the car after our hike.
Monday morning (October 14) was rainy but it cleared up in time for a hike to Crabtree Falls off the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile marker 339.5.
There were at least 4 different sets of steps like the ones below during the hike.
In some ways I thing going up stone steps is easier than going down because I have to be so careful when going down.
The Crabtree Meadows campground and the visitor centers with bathrooms were closed due to the Federal government shut down.
There weren't any signs of the actual trails being shut.
I think the logistics of closing trails would be more trouble than it's worth.
We did see some other hikers but not as many as usual.
Tuesday (October 15) was a beautiful day and the only day we had plans slightly modified by the U.S. government shutdown.
We had planned to drive to the top of Roan mountain and walk around from there.
It was nice to have blue skies after the overcast and rainy ones.
We weren't surprised when we came to Carvers Gap to find the bathrooms were closed since that had been the main sign of the government shutdown on this trip.
However, we didn't think we'd have to park there.
I took the next shot after we walked around the bar across the road we had intended to drip up to the top of Roan Mountain.
Since there weren't any signs saying we couldn't walk up the mountain we left the car in the parking lot at my own personal Carvers Gap.
In a way it was kind of nice to have our own personal road to walk up since no one else seemed to think about walking past the bar.
Even though we would have preferred driving to the top of the mountain, it was much easier walking than the forest hikes we'd done on the prior days.
It was 2 miles to the top and a much easier 2 miles back down. I'll admit that I wish the government shutdown hadn't prevented us from driving up and walking around from the top.
If we'd gone to Roan Mountain on Monday that would have been a pleasant walk but by Tuesday we were recovering from the steep forest hike we did to the Crabtree Falls the prior afternoon. Therefore we turned around just shy of reaching the very top because we hadn't planned on a four mile walk that morning.
At first I though the sign on the Spruce Pine store said Crystal Palace which made me laugh. Then I realized it was Chrystal Place not Palace.
We had a pretty day on Wednesday (October 16) for our drive home.
