On Top of the World

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, we were driving in and out of mist, at elevations at or around 3,000 feet, but we decided to pull off the parkway at Craggy Gardens.  Like every other “chance” we took on the Blue Ridge, Craggy Gardens was a wonderful experience!  Part of the Pisgah National Forest, this mountain is one  of the Craggy Mountains, a subrange of the Blue Ridge.  At 5,525 feet Craggy Gardens is among the higher peaks of the Blue Ridge.  The high slopes of the Great Craggies are covered with heath bald.  This means that the slopes are covered primarily with grasses and shrubs, in this case beautiful Catawba rhododendrons, wild blueberry bushes (pick your own!), clover and wildflowers.  Small hardwood trees of beech, buckeye, mountain ash and red oak grow at the lower elevations.  The summit is called a “blunt summit.”  There are no trees to block the view.

After a stop at the visitors center, we drove a bit further to the parking lot for the Craggy Garden Summit Hike.  We grabbed a jacket (in August!) and started up the path.   Wild flowers, ferns, mosses and lichens lined a lovely path which led through a rhododendron forest which promises to be glorious in late Spring!  After a light to moderate hike, not long, maybe 20 minutes or so, we reached the summit.

The mountain was wreathed in clouds.  There was a cool, damp mist and all was hushed.  We whispered, and listened to the wind!  As the clouds moved off, the sun brightened considerably, and the jackets came off!  The slopes around the stone parapets of the viewing area were covered with wildflowers, clover, shrubs and blueberry bushes.  After the quiet, we noticed a slight hum and then a gentle but persistent buzzing.   With the warmth of the sun, hundreds of bees and butterflies had begun feasting on nectar and pollen!

There is a 360° view at the summit.   The overlook provides a viewing area for each side of the peak and a few benches for resting and relishing the scenery.   The glistening Swannanoa River and the Black Mountains are quite visible to the East, with Mt. Mitchell to the North, and the rippling ridges and peaks of the Pisgah National Forest wrap around West and South.  It was a beautiful, serene, “mountain top” experience!  I would love to see it in late May, early June when the Catawba Rhododendrons are blooming!

From here we went to Mt. Mitchell!  Over one thousand feet higher than Craggy Gardens at 6,684 feet, Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi, and one of the peaks of the Black Mountains.  More alpine in nature, the mountain’s climate resembles Canada more than North Carolina, and is home to the famous Frasier Firs.  Here is a link to a North Carolina State Park Teacher’s Guide and Educational Booklet relating to the unique climate at Mt. Mitchell.  We pulled into the Mt. Mitchell State Park, just off the Blue Ridge, and drove up to the parking lot, where there is a Visitor’s Center, a Gift Shop, and Education Center.  We (slowly) climbed the steep walkway to the pinnacle, but took very few pictures.  We were immersed in clouds (again!)!   Here is a website with some pictures of unclouded views.

Relaxing over a lovely view, on the back patio at the Mount Mitchell Restaurant.

We were just a little disappointed to miss the four-state view, but cheered up considerably with a wonderful lunch at the Mt. Mitchell State Park Restaurant.   A short drive from the Visitor’s Center, the restaurant also has a gift shop, as well as a large patio out back with rocking chairs!  From our table by the window we could see nothing higher than us, and enjoyed glimpses of the tree-clad peaks and sunny green valleys below as clouds thinned and moved past.

I will have a separate post with all of the flowers!   Here are a few photos:

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Thanks so  much for reading!

This is the latest post in a series about our wonderful summer vacation in the Blue Ridge!  Thank you so much for reading!  If you are interested in the other posts you’ll find them here:

We Set Out Accompanied by Wildflowers
Dipping Our Feet in the Ancient New River
Stumbling Over the Tanawha Trail
Wonder and Awe at Linville Falls
Relaxing on a Rock at Looking Glass Falls
Ice Cream at the Vanderbilts

Wonder and Awe at Linville Falls!

Now that the kids are older, Mr. Garner and I are re-discovering our love of hiking. Part of our decision to drive the Blue Ridge was in order to chase a few waterfalls!  North Carolina has gorgeous waterfalls.  If you’ve seen the French and Indian War historical drama, Last of the Mohicans, with Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe, you’ve seen some beautiful North Carolina waterfalls!  Ralph had the challenge of selecting just a few waterfalls for us to see in a very short time, so he went for the Wow! factor and totally nailed it with Linville Falls.

This was actually our fourth stop in one day.  We stopped at the New River, we had a picnic, and we stopped at the Linn Cove Viaduct before we made it to the falls.  In fact, Mr. Garner was beginning to think we weren’t going to make it! I had to remind him that the sun does not set until 8 ish o’clock in August!  There were still plenty of hikers when we got there around 4 ish in the afternoon (See! plenty of time!).  We had to make a quick decision about which hike to take, there are several choices, with varying degrees of difficulty.  We chose the moderate hike that actually provides three views of the falls.

The first overlook spot is situated on an outcropping of rippling rock which stretches out into the upper section of the river and allows a 180° view as the water flows over the upper falls, narrows, enters a winding canyon and then drops out of site.  The next two viewpoints are further down the gorge and allow you to look back and see in the distance the upper falls, as well as where the water emerges from the canyon, drops 45 feet over the cliff side into the plunge basin and continue down the gorge.  The hiking isn’t a tremendous distance, not even a mile, but it is consistently uphill.  So the key, if you spend most of your time in the flatlands of coastal Virginia like I do, is to bring your phone and take pictures of red mushrooms, lovely leaves, interesting tree trunks, and amazing rock formations on the trail while you catch your breath!

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You actually hear the water before you see the water!  I think one of my favorite moments of this entire vacation occurred as we were nearing the first overlook.  We could hear the rushing water from the trail.  GraceNotes was a few feet ahead of me, so she saw it first, and I got to watch her as she rounded the trail and saw the upper falls.  Her eyes widened in wonder and her jaw dropped as she gasped out “WOW!”  Then she turned to me, her face an expression of awe and said “Mom! Hurry! You’ve GOT to see this!”

Here are two videos we took – you can hear the water too!

This is the third in a series of posts about our wonderful summer vacation in the Blue Ridge!  Thank you so much for reading!  If you are interested in the other posts you’ll find them here:

We Set Out Accompanied by Wildflowers
Dipping Our Feet in the Ancient New River
Stumbling Over the Tanawha Trail

Morning Mushrooms

It occurred to me that this header sounds like a Jefferson Airplane cover tune… Shifting gears…

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly…

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot’s in the door.

Mushrooms, Sylvia Plath
(enjoy the complete poem at the bottom of the post)

Thanks to Outdoor Hour Challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study and our fav science curriculum Apologia’s Exploring Creation series, the Garners pay a lot more attention to the beautiful world upon which God has planted us!  This morning when we did our pre-walk check of our Black Swallowtail Nursery (otherwise known as a fennel plant) we found 16 baby (teeny) caterpillars, plus one in a chrysalis and one getting ready

Teeny – really!

to form a chrysalis, and three other caterpillars of various ages chowing down.  We have been expecting the chrysalis because the plumpest caterpillar attached himself to a leaf and formed an upside down ” J” which we now recognize as a sort of preparation period before forming the chrysalis.   We are pretty excited about how much we are learning about the behavior and life cycle of this truly amazing creature simply through frequent and consistent observation – thanks to the fennel plant!

On our morning walk, we passed our neighbor’s house where lantana is blooming at various spots around the perimeter of her fence!  We snapped a few photos of some small skipper butterflies, I think a fiery skipper, and a dragon fly.

Further down the road, Mr. Garner and I found three different types of mushrooms growing within 30 yards of each other!  The first ones were sort of cute, so I snapped a picture on my phone (which I bring all the time on the walks now – in case I see something for the Outdoor Hour Summer Photo Challenge Pinterest board!)   Then we noticed another set, shaped completely differently.  Another half a block and there were more!  Once you start looking there are just all sorts of interesting things!  We hope to identify these mushrooms using a page on David Fischer’s American Mushrooms site called Common Lawn and Garden Mushrooms.

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What have you seen on your morning walks?

Mushrooms, by Sylvia Plath

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot’s in the door.

Sketch Tuesday: Birds

 Thayer’s Gull

GraceNotes spends a lot of time in the backyard cavorting on the swing, watching her blueberry bush (she races the birds) and keeping an eye on the fennel (we have more caterpillars!) She also has a gaggle of goslings that she feeds when they sail over, and at one of these dried bread banquets, she is pretty sure she spotted a Thayer’s Gull.

This time of year we often see gulls and ospreys and occasionally, a brown pelican, fish in the shallow river water behind our house.   She looked in our National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds (Eastern Region) to try to identify it, and decided that the gull she saw is a Thayer’s Gull.  Later, we looked it up and we’re not quite sure based on the range, but she is!  Since birds rarely pose for a portrait, she sketched a Thayer’s Gull from our wonderful bird guide!

Great Egret

Sunday morning, very early, finds me at the kitchen table in front of the window.  A new sketch pad (smaller, less intimidating) lies open, the first page sits empty and waiting.  Prismacolor pencils, freshly sharpened, stand at attention.   Sketch Tuesday theme: birds.  A cup of coffee, perfectly blended, steams within reach.  I have at least an hour of uninterrupted time ahead of me.  Surely the planets have aligned…

It is low tide.  A flash of gleaming white swoops in from the east; a Great Egret glides, low and smooth, skimming the surface of the water.  Wings gather, long black legs stretch out, and with barely a splash, the bird lands in the shallows.  There is a moment of stillness before the slow majestic stride begins, ever alert, ever watching.  His head turns; he halts.  Poised, every muscle tense, yet motionless.  With barely discernible movement, the long slender neck draws in, tightens like a spring.  In the blink of an eye, he strikes -  Success! A silvery fish dangles on the spear-like beak, and then with a flip of the head it disappears…