Memorial Day weekend in the mountains
This weekend, Justin and I went to Maggie Valley and stayed in my parents' motel. They were there, too. On Saturday, the 4 of us woke up early and went to Chimney Rock State Park. I haven't had time to go through and tweak all the photos I took (I took a few hundred on Saturday), but here are a few.
This is an HDR photo I took from Chimney Rock, looking out towards Lake Lure.
It was very hazy that morning.
Here's a view of Chimney Rock from further up the Skyline trail.
Here's a shot of Hickory Nut Falls from the Cliff trail.
Justin took advantage of inspiration point...and it paid off?
I'm going to go into detail about our time at Chimney Rock, and I want you to bear with me because this gets interesting. We got to Chimney Rock a little before 9 a.m. on Saturday, and the weather was pretty nice. When we got to the park, there were only a few other cars in the parking lot. We took the elevator up and took some photos from Chimney Rock, and then set off down the Skyline trail. It was moderately strenuous, with a lot of stairs. The ground dropped off quite steeply on one side of the trail at many points. As we were walking along the trail, Justin jokingly offered to tell me a fast way down the mountain. *shrug* A few minutes later, we heard a man's voice yell somewhere behind us. I joked "it sounds like he found the fast way down."
A bit later, further down the trail, we encountered a man coming our way. I guess he was a park official. He told us that the Cliff trail was closed because of an accident, and he said we could continue to the waterfall at the end of the trail we were on(Skyline), but we'd have to come back on the same trail instead of making the loop. We continued on toward the waterfall, somewhat disappointed that we'd have to come back the same way, and curious about what happened. We got to the waterfall and spent some time there, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery. At one point, a man (a tourist, I think) told me that a 2-year old fell off the trail. Here are a couple news stories on the incident: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880526038
http://www.wspa.com/midatlantic/spa/news.apx.-content-articles-SPA-2008-05-26-0022.html
So apparently the kid fell about 200 feet.
Thinking back on it and seeing some of the news stories, I realize that the yell we heard must have been the child's father. :-( Having just been on that trail, I must say, I do not think a 2 year old should have been on that trail. They should have at least had him on a leash. (Don't laugh, my parents used a leash for me sometimes when I was a kid, because I had a habit of wandering off)
Anyway, I guess we were at the waterfall for long enough, because they reopened the Cliff trail and we took it to get back. By the time we left the park, it was just starting to get really hot, and the parking lot was PACKED. Getting there early was a good thing.
Sunday, we drove a bit on the Blue Ridge Parkway and went chasing waterfalls. I know I should stick to the rivers and lakes that I'm used to...
Anyway, we found this awesome waterfall a few miles off of Blue Ridge parkway, using some directions from a waterfall website on the internet. There was nobody else there, while the parking lot near a waterfall on the parkway was packed. Here are a couple photos:
I confess I used a little HDR. I still didn't get any photos as amazing as I'd like...it would have been better to go in the morning.
This is an HDR photo I took from Chimney Rock, looking out towards Lake Lure.
It was very hazy that morning.
Here's a view of Chimney Rock from further up the Skyline trail.
Here's a shot of Hickory Nut Falls from the Cliff trail.
Justin took advantage of inspiration point...and it paid off?
I'm going to go into detail about our time at Chimney Rock, and I want you to bear with me because this gets interesting. We got to Chimney Rock a little before 9 a.m. on Saturday, and the weather was pretty nice. When we got to the park, there were only a few other cars in the parking lot. We took the elevator up and took some photos from Chimney Rock, and then set off down the Skyline trail. It was moderately strenuous, with a lot of stairs. The ground dropped off quite steeply on one side of the trail at many points. As we were walking along the trail, Justin jokingly offered to tell me a fast way down the mountain. *shrug* A few minutes later, we heard a man's voice yell somewhere behind us. I joked "it sounds like he found the fast way down."
A bit later, further down the trail, we encountered a man coming our way. I guess he was a park official. He told us that the Cliff trail was closed because of an accident, and he said we could continue to the waterfall at the end of the trail we were on(Skyline), but we'd have to come back on the same trail instead of making the loop. We continued on toward the waterfall, somewhat disappointed that we'd have to come back the same way, and curious about what happened. We got to the waterfall and spent some time there, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery. At one point, a man (a tourist, I think) told me that a 2-year old fell off the trail. Here are a couple news stories on the incident: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880526038
http://www.wspa.com/midatlantic/spa/news.apx.-content-articles-SPA-2008-05-26-0022.html
So apparently the kid fell about 200 feet.
Thinking back on it and seeing some of the news stories, I realize that the yell we heard must have been the child's father. :-( Having just been on that trail, I must say, I do not think a 2 year old should have been on that trail. They should have at least had him on a leash. (Don't laugh, my parents used a leash for me sometimes when I was a kid, because I had a habit of wandering off)
Anyway, I guess we were at the waterfall for long enough, because they reopened the Cliff trail and we took it to get back. By the time we left the park, it was just starting to get really hot, and the parking lot was PACKED. Getting there early was a good thing.
Sunday, we drove a bit on the Blue Ridge Parkway and went chasing waterfalls. I know I should stick to the rivers and lakes that I'm used to...
Anyway, we found this awesome waterfall a few miles off of Blue Ridge parkway, using some directions from a waterfall website on the internet. There was nobody else there, while the parking lot near a waterfall on the parkway was packed. Here are a couple photos:
I confess I used a little HDR. I still didn't get any photos as amazing as I'd like...it would have been better to go in the morning.