Black Mountain

The greening of the mountains from Tanbark Ridge overlook, elevation 3175 feet, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina. The road seen in upper left is the parkway as it continues northeast. Can you see the little houses, including my favorite, the red roofed one?

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Saluda, NC day trip



 My friend and I had a comfortable day, cloudy but no rain...temps mild, and we walked the downtown of Saluda, which is just across from the tracks.

 This is a town that was at the crest of a 3 mile long grade, steepest in the US standard guage rails.
(Meaning it doesn't count those cog rails that go up mountains)

If you were driving towards Asheville, NC from say Columbia or even Spartanburg, SC, you'd be on I-26, and rising along the same Saluda Gap from low country Piedmont into mountains.
The grass along the tracks caught my attention.  Those aren't regular grass seed heads.  They are sandspurs.  I had a flashback to living in St. Augustine, FL, where I  never could go barefoot because of these thorny buggers.  Looks like the trains brought some uninvited visitors to Saluda.

Tomorrow, more of downtown Saluda, NC



Life does not accommodate you; it shatters you. Every seed destroys its container, or else there would be no fruition.
Florida Scott-Maxwell

2 comments:

  1. Passed the Saluda signs tons of times and never stopped. I'm anxious to see your photographs of downtown.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I remember sandspurs well! Let's hope the winter does them in;

    ReplyDelete

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