10/24 and 25:
Yesterday (10/24) Diesel Truck was making a noise when decelerating. So I took it to a local transmission shop and found the u-joints were going, so had them replaced. The morning was spent with Lynn caring for The Boys at the campground and I helped my friend run some errands. It was a down day but needed to get Diesel Truck fixed and good to help a friend.
I found one
On October 25, my friend Mary had a full day planned for us. We picked her up at 0800 and were off.
Mary is a graduate of Brevard College and we made a quick tour of the campus. Then off to Pisgah National Forest. We stopped at the visitors center and I must say, what a great visitors center, well done interpretation of the area covering natural resources and recreation, many are hands on types of exhibits. There is also a nice gift shop and restrooms.
What was of interest to me was here is the Cradle of Forestry in America. Here one finds the first forestry school in America. This was part of the Biltmore Estate where Gilford Pinchot was the estate forester. Pinchot was replaced by Carl A. Schenck, who then founded the forestry school. The Biltmore Forest School offered a one-year course of study, and the curriculum focused on providing traditional classroom lectures in silvicultural theory supplemented with extensive hands-on, practical forest management field training. Schenck's students spent most afternoons in the forest doing hands-on work and directly applying the theories they had learned in the classroom. Schenck was a demanding, but engaging professor, and his students took to him immediately, absorbing as much of the scientific forestry theories as they could.
This area is riddled with waterfalls and our plan was to visit a few of them. We first stopped by Looking Glass Falls located next to the road.
Then we drove to the Moore Cove Falls parking area and hiked into these falls. The trails in this area are well marked, some areas could be a challenge if the rocks are slick. The Boys enjoyed sniffing and trying to take us ever which way.
Look at those PAWS!!!
One could spend a long time exploring and taking photos of these falls, but we had miles to cover, so we could get a good sampler of the wonderful natural elements of this beautiful area.
We drove past Sliding Rock Falls, which is a fee area, where people slid on the slick rocks. We thought it a little cool for this activity today.
Our route then took us to the Blue Ridge Parkway, making a stop at the Pisgah Inn to take in the views. The area seemed plenty busy for an off season Thursday. I can not imagine how crowded this area is in the summer time.
While the fall colors were not at a peak as we had expected, the weather stayed warm delaying the color change, we were able to see patches of color here and there.
We stopped to take in the views at several turnouts before hiking into Skinny Dip Falls, too cold for a dip, so we opted to have our lunch at the falls.
This was my favorite falls we visited, it had many drops and pools. Again, one could spend a day there capturing the many aspects of just this one fall. We had a wonderful visit to this location and The Boys got plenty of attention and, as expected, Koda had plenty of “look at those PAWS” comments.
We had received information the colors were nice along Route 215, so that is the route we chose to go to Asheville. We were not disappointed and found a waterfall next to the road and stopped for photos.
Our Concierge Guide 5 Star Rated
I am tired
In Asheville, we had a great dinner at Tupelo Honey before returning to Johnson City, TN.
We said goodbye to my friend Mary thanking her for the Executive Concierge Tour of her great area.
Back at the campground we packed up Diesel Truck to make the morning departure a bit faster. Glad we did as the rain started during the night and continued well into the morning.
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