Highest peak in the East

As we drove up the last 500 or so feet of elevation, there were clouds flowing across the road, sometimes creating white-out conditions of almost no visibility, but just for a few seconds.  Then they blew away again.

We hoped that Mt. Mitchell would have the same thing, with intermittent sunshine.

So we even walked up the last incline, taking our time with frequent stops for catching our breath.

Shelly told me about his bi-pass, and that he frequently gets so tired he doesn't want to do a thing.  I coughed all the way up.  We kept saying, why are we doing this?  Well, it's there.  We're here.  The last time I came I didn't even attempt this last part of the journey.  But this was Shelly's first try to be on top of the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi.

We did have a break in the clouds, and could see the observation platform up there.

Shelly was successful at reaching the top, but we had solid clouds, and the white gravel looks a lot like snow, doesn't it?

We could see Dr. Mitchell's tomb, the man who was certain this was the highest peak, but didn't live to have it verified.

We were glad there were these lovely panorama photos, but we could barely see the tree tops just 50 feet away from us.

As Shelly said, we could have been in a warehouse in Swannanoa with a lot of dry ice for all the view we saw.

Did I mention it was rather cold and windy also?