Day trip to Cooler Climes, Part 1 of 2

 Just go higher on mountains, and anyone knows it's cooler up there. So we did. The three adults and one grandchild tootled along to Little Switzerland. We had all the time in the world.

View from overlook at the Skyline Inn, Little Switzerland, NC

The Skyland Inn on US 226.

There used to be a small building on this site, see my blog HERE with before and after pics of the original Skyland Inn (and below just added to this post June 23, 2024).

An aerial view of the Inn and overlook where we were standing with an older photo to compare.

A post from 2014 about my first visit to the Little Switzerland Bookstore. HERE.

Two groups in front of the bookstore

But the restaurant is "always closed Tues and Wed." we learned. Why hadn't any one of us checked?

We wandered around the used book store...and I did succumb to some lovely cards that are just precious!

Romeo & Juliet

Cinderella

Laser cut cards that pop out caught my attention.

As we made different lunch decisions, I noticed a vining/tree that grew next to the bookstore entrance. Nothing gets past me!

Its roots are under the building.

And the top of it is all over the porch roof!

More photos of our lunch, and of the Blue Ridge Parkway trip home soon!

Today's quote:

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. 
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

Sharing with Skywatch Friday

The day trip this week

Our three (Not) Musketeers went down the road to Asheville NC. To visit some stores, eat at a nice restaurant, and go to at least one book sale.

Across the street from Malaprops Bookstore. Our early arrival around 10:15 meant we window shopped until many stores opened at 11.

We decided we'd be back later to Woolworth Walk...where many arts and crafts are displayed in a lot of little booths. For purchases you just pick something up and go to the front counter to pay for it!

We enjoyed reading the chakras on the Tibetan Prayer Flags. Though it was fun to capture our own smiles in the window!

Wall St goes off to the left (in this photo) around the Flat Iron Building.

I found this green ball in the path in this store, so kicked it away, only to find it belonged to this lovely black Poodle.

We did shop in the tiny store on the right at street level in the Public Service Building, after lunch.

It was known by having lots of sayings to muse over and perhaps take home. 

These are the large letters cut out of a Readers Digest volume. There were also smaller ones above, but no "C"s for my friend to give to her granddaughter.

Lunch at the Early Girl, which was open and two of us decided a brunch choice would be ideal. Our vegan friend had an impossible burger.

I'll share a bit more next time...

Today's quote: 

We all live in a community, in one way or another, and we all have an opportunity to make it better in some way

Yes a pot bellied pig!

Sharing with Saturday's Critters...can you count how many we saw, including Ms. Piggy too?

A day trip from 2015

 Anyone who is visiting, or lives in this area full time, knows that these Western North Carolina mountains are teeming with woods.  Ah, greenness abounds!

Summertime is upon us, with nice cool nights, some afternoon showers, and humidity that varies from 60 to 90 percent.  Fog is often what I first see in the mornings before that good old sunshine showers my eastern windows.

A mountain road with the sights delineated for travelers

So though there are woods in any direction you might jump, I'll share more of the latest of my day trips with you now.

Joyce Kilmer - Slickrock Wilderness, Nantahala National Forest
I won't quote his most famous poem, which begins with "I think I shall never see a tree..."

Up close and more personal.  The little things you see along a walk.  And I have a trusty camera that didn't run out of battery power for the whole first half of the walk.  And the second half I was so tired already I didn't feel like taking a single picture anyway, almost.

One of the streams which you fortunately get a bridge across

Interesting how the whole first half of the lower loop has been rubbed out...it's not that hard to find!

The trail is well marked, maintained, and has steps added to keep erosion under control

All the felled trees had already died, Hemlocks with an insect that has killed most of them in the forests in this area, and perhaps some chestnuts which died back in the 1920s from Chestnut blight..

With the death of the hemlocks, there is more sunlight filtering to the floor of the woods, so new growth is happening.  The leaves closest to me were Poplars, the children of the biggest trees in this woods already.  Tim remembers walking these trails about 20 years ago, and they were very dark indeed with all the hemlocks.

One of the few examples of wildlife we saw...a few dogs were walking the path as well (on leashes) ahead of us

Today's Poem:

The Fog

by Carl Sandburg

 THE fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

More photos from day trip

 

Good ole Blogger posts pics backwards in chrono or numeric order. What's wrong with them? (Don't answer)

I didn't feel up to editing, still just seeing minor things this small...so here are photos the way they came out. Trip to studio (with Italian I think flag) in Bakersville...and little barn/shed falling down.

Today's quote:

Creating and expanding your own inner light is a simple way of tending to your own energy field.

Hooker Falls trip there and back

Over hill and dale -
starting in Black Mountain, go south and west, Asheville airport, south on US 280 through Mills River to the Brevard intersection with US 64.  If you take a right and head west, you're on US 276 into the Pisgah National Forest which passes Looking Glass Falls right on the road, and in a few more miles you meet the Blue Ridge Parkway.

However, if you turn left at the intersection of US 280 and US 64, going east, you are headed to Etowah.  But don't go that far (though there's not really a "town" that represents Etowah...just a few shops spread about, and a golf course.  Before getting to that area, there's a signal light at a quarry on your left, and a turn on the right.  The quarry is part of a large cliff face as well as some rocks near the road. The best clue for your turn is the small airport and a sign to DuPont State Forest. Or maybe it says Waterfalls...I can't remember.  They are both to the right.

 You immediately cross railroad tracks that are no longer used, actually the tracks are gone and just the crossing guard is left.

The waterfalls signs are blue, and another one will come along (another right turn) in a few miles.  It's less than 10 miles.  The hills really climb at that point, and there're only a few private drives off this road.  The first parking lot of the state forest is on the left, but that's not the one I go to.  A quarter mile further is one on the right.  That lot gives access to both Hooker Falls in one direction on the river, and Triple Falls in the other direction.

 The sand was deposited all over after a flooding rain on the Little River

 Once you have walked down the hill, there's a nice flat area around the rock-enclosed swimming/wading area below the falls.

Since it's mid-winter, people have come here for fire circles.

Or perhaps to see the kayak and rafts that went down the falls the day I visited.

Returning to Hwy US 64, you can see the quarry easier.

And back to home again in reverse.  I was pleased that the odometer said it was exactly 50 miles from my home.  I can do that in around an hour usually, and find someplace to eat lunch as well as sight-see, and I will enjoy a half day trip coming home in another hour's drive.