A Day in the Mountains

With all of the rough times that my wife has been through, I thought it was a good time for the two of us to get out of town for the day. Our favorite destination over the years has been the mountains. We really enjoy driving the scenery and hiking to waterfalls. I snap the pictures and Dr. K enjoys the surroundings and is sometimes amused by me (on purpose or otherwise).




(Click any picture for a larger view)

The reports on the quality of this year’s fall colors have been discouraging. We are in the middle of a wicked drought, but don’t believe the reports. We thought the colors were spectacular, the best we have seen. I took a few shots so you can be the judge.





We drove up through Hendersonville, NC and into the Pisgah National Forest. Our first stop was Looking Glass Falls (above). This has always been a difficult falls for me to photograph, but yesterdays pictures came out just fine. From here, we cruised the Blue Ridge Parkway (with the top down, of course) to lunch in Asheville.





More cruising and sightseeing (above) led us to the Crabtree Valley Recreation Area. We embarked on a 3 mile hike through the woods where the halfway point was Crabtree Falls (above). This is one of the most photographed waterfalls in North Carolina for good reason.

After this hike it was time to head home. My recently acquired GPS unit provided Dr. K with the best laugh of the day. We were near Little Switzerland. Let’s just say that this unit doesn’t know the mountain roads very well. It led us into a residential area to a dead end that had my wife laughing so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath. I didn’t mind that at least 50% if the laughter was directed at me. I was just glad to hear her laughing.