Second leg of our trip up the parkway

 

  Bright clear skies as we started out at 10:20, but as we neared Craggy Gardens we began to see some clouds coming in.

Yes, I am saturating the  colors here. Sorry if it's offensive.

Un-edited photo

But fortunately the clouds blew away when we got to the crowded parking lot. There were a few porta-potties for those who had hoped the rest-rooms would be working. I overheard the man who worked there that they needed to be pumped out. (A clue for what happened later!)

We intended to go to Little Switzerland for lunch and a favorite book store. But at the Information stop at Craggy Gardens, we learned we couldn't get there from here. (To Little Switzerland.)

Well...we could have learned that, but being slightly stubborn women, we thought the man with the map who worked there must be wrong. 

I kid you not. We drove back towards Asheville again for about 100 yards, then said, but wasn't the turnoff for Little Switzerland before Mt. Mitchell? I said I thought so. (Later I rescinded that statement...but hey, I wanted it to be there then!) 

So we turned around and started back on our merry way toward Mt. Mitchell.

I'm glad we were merry, and it was still before 11 am. 

Looking west we could see many bare spots where landslides or mudslides had occurred during Hurricane Helene. The earth and all the trees would just slide down from having been so saturated with water, leaving rock behind.

My iPhone's 5 times magnification showed this. Many of the trees that are dead were damaged by wind.

That's either I-40 or I-26 off in the distance, and I forgot to ask the Park Ranger inside the information building.

I decided to support the Blue Ridge Parkway by buying a new wind breaker...they only had men's sizes, so I came home with a medium size! I was surprised they were open because it was "Columbus Day, a national holiday" - not to mention that the Federal Government was also on shut down still. I do hope someone was paying the two Park Rangers working that day.

Our selfie was pointed to the top of Craggy Gardens, where a lot of people were hiking. We had to move around a bit so the porta-potties weren't included in the shot. I hadn't been on the parkway with so many "Leaf Peepers" before (this was Oct. 13!) Many many cars in the overlooks. But not too bad when driving.

This spot used to give a great view of the Burnett Reservoir which provides Asheville and Black Mountain water. The clouds were blowing across at times, and it was pretty overgrown. During the summer it would have been covered by leaves.

It was great to be passenger for Teresa's driving, because later I found another area while we drove along to take photos of the Reservoir.

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