Today is Friday. That means that today was our next to last day of vacation. On Sunday we’ll head home.
With the end of vacation looming, we were feeling the pressure to get out and do something and not sit around all day. It was nice this morning but the forecast showed rain all afternoon. So we ate a quick breakfast and ran out to hike to Green Knob Lookout Tower before the rain moved in.
The rain hadn’t fully moved in by the time we finished our hike, and with the end of vacation heavy upon us, we wanted to make the most of it. So we decided to see what else we could see before running out of dry weather.
From Green Knob Lookout Tower, it’s only a few minutes to Mount Mitchell State Park. There was heavy fog at Mount Mitchell, but we made our way to the summit anyway.
Standing at the highest point east of the Mississippi. The views from the summit of Mount Mitchell weren’t particularly good today. Grayson climbed on this rock on the way back down the mountain and as Grayson does everyone else must.
After we left Mount Mitchell the weather actually cleared up rather than turning to rain as forecasted. So we headed from Mount Mitchell to the Craggy Gardens area.
This isn’t actually Craggy Gardens. It was taken at the overlook for Glassmine Falls about 3 miles away. Looking south from Craggy Pinnacle with Burnett Reservoir in view.
At this point, the kids were dying (or so they thought). It was now pushing 2 PM, we were at least 30 minutes from civilization, and we hadn’t had lunch. We hadn’t expected to be gone from home for more than an hour, so when we left home we didn’t take anything but water bottles.
Lunch on our minds, from Craggy Gardens, we headed down into Asheville–a good 30 minutes away–where we picked up a late lunch from Loretta’s Cafe to-go, and ate at Pack Square Park.
From Asheville, it was a full hour back up to our Airbnb in Burnsville. I had hiked to Roaring Fork Falls both Wednesday and Thursday, and must have talked it up because Meagan wanted to see it. So on the way home we made one last stop and hiked up to Roaring Fork Falls.
All five of our crew at Roaring Fork Falls. A red eft we spotted on the walk back from the falls.
Right now we’re polishing off the day with leftovers, ice cream, and The Sound of Music (one of Meagan’s favorites and one that she’s wanted the kids to see for years).
Great photos! Looks like yall had a great vacation!