On Sunday, we went to early service at church. We then packed up a picnic & headed up the road. We were trying to decide between Biltmore & Chimney Rock. We ended up at Chimney Rock since they have picnic tables. Does anyone know if Biltmore has picnic tables anywhere?
Anyway, we sat up lunch (soup & sandwiches) on a picnic table and ate with 1000 gnats. Literally. They swarmed us. Vince had 3 stuck on his face. It was horrible. We packed it back up & ate the rest by the car. We did take our electric fly swatter & killed about 20 bugs. And we sprayed Off. As soon as we sprayed, they swarmed even more as if we had just sprayed sugar water. It was so crazy. I had made a potato & corn chowder before we left & it stayed so hot in the thermos. But before I could blow on it to cool it off, gnats were landing everywhere. I'm pretty sure I ate a few gnats, so I've definitely had my protein today.
We packed up the rest of our picnic & headed to the school bus that took us up to the Chimney Rock entrance. Our plan of action was to go as high up as they allowed us, so Vince & I started out taking the elevator for the first part.
We then climbed stairs to the Opera House...
We got a great view of the top of Chimney Rock...
...then climbed more stairs to Devil's Head.
This was the view looking down from some of the scaffolding. Then we saw Devil's Head. It does look like a head perched on the side of the mountain.
We asked some other folks to take a picture of us at a tree near Devil's Head.
Then we climbed stairs...
...& stairs & stairs to Exclamation Point.
The weather was so perfect for hiking up a mountain.
We sat on the cool rocks to cool off & admire the view. The mood was killed a little bit thanks to the 30 other people up there being noisy & yelling at each other & laughing loudly in other languages. It was not as peaceful & serene as I had imagined. But the weather & scenery was so perfect. I could see a few trees that had fall colors, but a lot of them were still green.
This was some little building up near Exclamation Point.
We noticed a long path from Exclamation Point over to the water fall that was blocked off from guests. That was the portion that was used in the film, The Last of the Mohicans. It looked very close to the edge of the cliff so I guess they had closed it for safety reasons.
We rode the elevator back down & asked the guide about the path. He said they are redoing some trails and would be announcing the new trails in November. I can't wait to see what they have planned.
On the way back home, we stopped & got a head of mountain cabbage and we got a bag of apples. I asked if he had honey crisp & he did not, but he gave me a sample of another type & it was sweet & delicious. I can't remember the name of it, but I bought a bag.
When we got back home Sunday evening, we ran to Lowe's to get some winterizer fertilizer for the yard & some bug guard granules. We spread it in the dark, but wanted to get it down before the rain comes this week. I then cooked dinner & made a homemade apple pie with fresh apples. Yum!
No comments:
Post a Comment