29May2008 Grandfather Mountain NC

From Boone, we set off for the highest peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Those with good imagination will make out the profile of a man with a long beard like a grandfather, from the craggy outcrops at the summit. But one had to be miles away to make this out. Anyway, the mountain was thus named.

We finally got there after seemingly endless detours due to road works. As if to compensate for our frustrations, the clouds lifted when we walked gingerly across the Mile High Swinging Bridge to Grandfather Mountain's Linville Peak. From our vantage point a tad below 6000ft, the 360 deg panorama was breath taking. Excellent visibility allowed us to make out small farming communities, villages, tranquil lakes and rivers that meandered lazily into infinity. The greenery extended into the horizon. Everything below co-existed peacefully.

Besides the stunning views, it is worth noting that Grandfather Mountain was designated as an International Biosphere Reserve by the UN. This was in recognition of the ongoing efforts to promote a harmonious relationship between man and his environment. The aim is for man to prosper not at the expense of the environment. The whole area is wellknown for the large number of distinct ecological communities. Scientific studies on the preservation of many rare plants and endangered animals are in progress. Environmental education programs are being run for children. Many animals can be viewed, from least invasive vantage points, within large enclosures built around where they actually live.

Although miles of hiking trails waited to reward visitors, we just sat silently on the summit, completely spellbound, till fog started creeping up the slopes and told us it was time to leave.

Distance traveled 77.3 miles

Couldn't resist throwing in shot of small farm buildings along the way - how real people lived

Flat Top Manor, where Moses H. Cone the textile baron once lived, now converted to a Parkway Craft Center; the Cone Estate - several thousand acres of forest, and highland meadows donated in 1950 to the National Park Service for public enjoyment


View of the Watauga River (leading to the Watauga Lake) from the Flat Top Manor in Moses H. Cone Memorial Park NC, along the Blue Ridge Parkway


Really impressive looking billboard just before we arrived Grandfather Mountain

Equally impressive rocks with trees taking refuge downwind at the top on the way to Linville Peak


Even the views from the parking lot should be spectacular.


Approaching the Mile High Swinging Bridge to get across to Grandfather Mountain's Linville Peak, the shape of the trees from incessant battering by the winds.


Does this look like the edge? It is.


Oh, that wonderful lightness of being (not intentionally referring to a certain novel); feeling the wind through one's hair!


Wouldn't it be nice to live there?


Yes we were there like those folks on the peak, it doesn't take much to be airborne.


Although Grandfather Mountain was 'born' seven hundred million years ago through movement of the earth's plates, survey by geologists decades back found that some of the rock formations were more than a billion years old.


Imagine sliding down the rocky slope


Conditions on the mountain can change very quickly, see the white stuff rolling in?


Enlarge this Park sign about the bears, you may learn something.


Taken at the bear habitat near the Nature Museum lower down the mountain, the black one was rolling around but the brown one was out to the world; the enclosure had ample space for the animals to roam.