Been awhile since I posted up any of our weekend outing pics (though I prob bore the crap outta y'all anyways, heh), but here's a few I snapped this weekend and last. All the rain the past month or so we haven't been able to get out as much as usual, but last weekend and most of this weekend was absolutely beautiful (was running from some storm clouds today, lol)

Anyways, last weekend we set out to try and find a pretty cool waterfall we've been meaning to get to for quite some time (70ft freefalling... can walk into/under/all around it). Made our way up to the Blue Ridge Parkway (via multiple fun routes, lol) and up to near the Craggy Gardens picnic area where we thought the trail started

Looking at the map once more to try and find the right trail



So we head out, and we walk... and walk.. and walk, still don't see any signs pointing towards the falls. The trail splits into a "Y" with no direction as to which way to go. We check both out and neither seem to be heading in the right direction, so we head back to where we parked at and tried one of the other trails. Took that for awhile and we ended up in the parking area for the picnic area, where several more trails start from. We try one of those, and we never did find the waterfall, but we did however end up on top of the mountain in a big field of Rhododendron (it's not all in full bloom yet, not for another month or so)



Not a bad view though





This (when it's in full bloom) is a Rhododendron tunnel.... seen pics of it before and it's awesome when everything is blooming. Have to come back in a month or so and check it out



It was getting late and we never did find the waterfall, so we called it a day and made our way home. I looked when I got home and turns out Scotts navigational beacons were a little off, and we were in the completely wrong spot for the waterfall trail, hahah. I see how to get there now so we'll go back and find it


Then yesterday we decided to head the other way on the Parkway, and went down towards the south end



Hit up a few more overlooks out this way..... we don't get out this way nearly as often



The faithful beasts.... Scott is about to turn (or maybe did) 50k on his FZ1... original chain & sprockets, lol



Nice view though!






Today Scott was making up a big route that would take us out west, then I pointed out the radar map and scratched that idea, LOL. So we headed north instead on our usual backroads, went up to NC80 (a usual favorite that we haven't been up in some time) while watching a pretty nasty looking cloud off to the west. We barely even start to get up 80 and it starts raining pretty good, so we do a quick U-turn and head back to a side road to head east instead. Make our way over to NC 226A, another favorite... and luckily it was dry there, so we made our way up to the Parkway once again



The storms were still headed our way, so we made our way east some more on the parkway.... checked out a couple overlooks we hadn't been to before on the way



We didn't think this one was gonna be much of a view at first, but after following a path down to this little perch, it was actually pretty good. Don't mind the virgin mary or whoever it is there to the right, hahah







The cutout in the trees down below there is another one of our favorite riding roads.... Hwy 221





Then from there there was another 0.6 mile trail back to another overlook spot, so of course we had to check it out. Another great view indeed!



Can see Table Rock over there just right of center.... we usually see it from the Brown Mountain overlook going up 181 which is on the other side of the mountain




That's all the pics I got before heading home before the rain hit. We ended up staying dry most of the way, until 3 miles from my house of course it has to start raining, lol. Scott had another 17 miles to go past my house, but it stopped raining shortly after he passed my house, so really wasn't too bad for either of us. Judging from the red spots on the radar, it certainly could have been muuuch worse, lol.

But can you tell I absolutely love love LOOOOOVE where I live?? Never want to move.... ever!! hahah

 

damn, it looks fun. can't wait til i'm an official resident of NC.


i'm glad you're enjoying it, i'm thinking i'm going to as well

 

Cool Pics...

 

Those pics bring back memories of when I rode the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive on my bicycle back in '97. Very scenic and peaceful, no commercial traffic permitted on the Parkway and the speed limit is 45. Lots of tunnels to ride through.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Awesome... when and what part of NC are you moving to??

 

Yea the BRP is great when there's not a ton of traffic (fall when the leaves change, it's an absolute zoo up there). But the views certainly can't be beat.... and Skyline Drive is awesome too! Been there a few times. Sounds like an epic trip on a bicycle!

 

eastern NC - most likely close to the coast. so i know that i won't be all that close to the great rides - but on the weekends - i've already mapped some cool ways to the western part of the state. in a couple of years after my wife's contract is up, we think we'll be moving to either western NC or eastern TN. we're suckers for the mountains and hills (me for obvious reasons)