Our tour today took us from Blowing Rock to Asheville. With a heavy heart, we left the idyllic town, which was just a few miles from the wonderful scenic road.
The wind had noticeably subsided, but the sun had picked up a bit. Today's journey was from Milepoint 290 to Point 390. Although we couldn't imagine it, today's route was even more spectacular than yesterday's. The new colors of yellow and red were also mixing in the leaves of the trees. Every distant view became a pure sea of colors. We were now averaging over 1,100 meters in elevation.
The first wow effect was Price Lake. There we got our first glimpse of the new colors of nature. In addition, a light mist rose above the water, which beautifully rounded off the overall picture.
Then we reached the Linn Cove Viaduct, and we couldn't stop marveling. As the last part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, completed in 1987, it is internationally known as a marvel of engineering. By the way, if you simply enter 'Blue Ridge Parkway' on Google, the first images are always of the viaduct. We spent over half an hour there, taking photos of the impressive structure from various angles amidst the mountainous natural landscape.
Another highlight of the day was definitely Linville Falls, the most famous waterfalls in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The water shoots down the cliffs for up to 14 meters. There were several hiking trails here that led to different viewpoints. Everything was easily manageable. Overall, we spent 2 hours at Linville Falls and caught some beautiful views. An absolutely worthwhile stop! Although it was much more crowded here than on our previous route on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it should be mentioned positively that there were no parking fees or admission charges here!
We continued driving and were amazed when we passed a place called Little Switzerland. 'Well, when will we ever return to Switzerland?' we thought and stopped. When we arrived in Little Switzerland, we naturally had the typical food - BBQ at the Switzerland Cafe! Well, along with the BBQ, we also had beer and hot apple cider and cake... Then it was time to say 'Uf Wiederluege'. After about 100 wonderful views, we finally reached our destination for the day, Asheville, NC, at dusk. On the way to the motel, we could hear many sounds of music. We ended the evening in the city with approximately 90,000 inhabitants at one of the numerous local breweries called Wicked Weed. We were tipsy but not stoned as we made our way to the room later in the evening.
Hoppy greetings, Steffi and Stefan
