Trip West - Blue Ridge Pkwy - Richland Balsam Loop Hike

 

Today we head up the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike the Richland Balsam Loop.  

The clouds are settled down in the Valley

The hike starts at the Haywood-Jackson Overlook

It is a 1.4 mile loop hike to the Summit - just over 1/2 mile now .  Tucson looks happy about that.  

It's a nice shady hike.     Which way do we go?  I chose counter clockwise.

The loop is only 1.5 miles total but is uphill

and a bit rocky in spots

Almost 1/2 way to the Summit

It's damp and not a lot of light filtering through the trees

Perfect environment for Mushrooms and other fungus

Some Indian Pipe

Some yellow ones

Even this Black Mushroom is growing mushrooms!

We are going the right way as the numbers are going up - we just don't know what they indicate as all the trail maps were gone. 

 I think 13 indicates a tree has fallen and blocked the trail - just our luck

but we find another way and it looks like we are approaching the summit

Finally some flowers

No view at the summit but we catch one on the way down

Another view

and we make it back to the truck

A nice little hike

Trip West - Cherokee NC - Unto these Hills

I have heard the play at the Cherokee Reservation - Unto these Hills is a must see.  If we are going to do it tonight is our last chance as it ends this weekend and this is our last night off this week 

One of the longest-running outdoor dramas in the U.S., Unto These Hills has thrilled and entertained more than six million people since 1950..

No problem getting tickets at the ticket office that evening

It's a big outdoor theater, it seats 2800.   Unto These Hills drama is the tragic and triumphant story of the Cherokee that traces back to the years before the heartbreak of the Trail of Tears to the present day

To start there is a bluegrass group

The play is quite good, a little hard to understand as the speakers are too loud for the small attendance

The play opens with the arrival of the Spanish Conquistador, Hernando DeSoto in 1540. The appearance of DeSoto and his army establishes an ominous portent of what will befall the Cherokee Nation during the next three-hundred years.

 The discovery of gold in Cherokee County in 1835 sets the stage for tribal lands to be overrun by the whites, who illegally occupy lands, build settlements and town, and generally disregard the cultural practices and freedoms of the Native population. 

It charts the history of the Cherokee up through the Trail of Tears and the return to their homeland, a truly heartbreaking story. 

 

 

Today we hike the Waterrock Knob Trail on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We get an early start and the fog hasn't lifted yet.

There are Turk's Cap Lilies along the way

The trail is only 1 mile round trip - the first  1/2 is paved

It has an ascent of 450', so there are stairs along the way

The trail turns to dirt and rocks

Tucson is doing really well

This little guy was singing his heart our

More stairs

Getting brighter, must be getting closer

and then we are there - but not much to see with the fog.  Gary talks to a family just behind us and i hear him say "I haven't told her about it yet - it's a secret"  Melissa doesn't like secrets - so I make him spill the beans.  Apparently there was a plane crash near here in 1983 and there is a trail to it.

We get to the trail and go down a ways and it looks a bit treacherous and is not clearly marked.  With Gary's knee and not prepared for more than a mile hike I say another time.  The family Gary was talking to arrives and they go down.  We tell them to shout out if they see it.  After a bit no word and Gary says we're going

You want me to go where?

It's a downhill start

Tucson is off leash and loving it

What goes down, keeps going up again

Gary takes a break

A few obstacles along the way

and a little bush wacking - hope we are still on the trail

and then we get an opening

and a sign

Apparently the area was vandalized a couple of months ago.

The plane wreck comes into sight

A Cessna 414A which crashed in 1983. Pilot error, poor weather conditions, and other fatal mistakes all played a role in the crash that claimed both lives on board.

Due to the rugged terrain of the region, only the engines were salvageable. The rest of the aircraft was left on the mountainside.

Talking to other hikers from the area, up to a few years ago the plane was pretty intact and the door opened and closed. 

It was quite the hike.  We get back to the Waterrock Knob overlook and the fog has lifted

It was tough hike, as there are many unmarked side trails, difficult terrain, and some steep drops along the way.  Trail blazes were sometimes hard to spot  It could be easy to get lost or miss the trail that leads to the crash site.