Linville and Blowing Rock

We headed out on Saturday for Linville Gorge and Falls and Blowing Rock. The weather was gorgeous in the morning (we left at 1030AM) though clouds moved in throughout the day. We took I-40 and US221 to go (about an hour to Linville). We used US221 and US70 then I-40 to come back and gained a little time. We parked at the gravel lot off NC183 and walked to the falls. There is a nice viewing area 4/10 mile from the lot at the top of the falls. It was a nice reward without too much effort, though I was carrying Calvin in the baby-backpack the whole time. We spent some time there at the top. We then hiked an additional 4/10 mile to get to the first of 2 lower viewing points. It was very nice. We could see some folks in the pool at the bottom of the falls, from about 120 feet up. Awesome!


We then got on the Parkway and went to the visitors' center lot and drove through (by then it was 230PM and we were starving, so no stopping there). The went to the (very nice and large) picnic area for Linville on the parkway and had a feast. We poked around the river a little bit. On the way to Blowing Rock, we passed Grandfather Mountain, and drove over the Linn Cove Viaduct. Those are really nifty sights. We then stopped at the Moses Cone home on the Parkway. We rested there and watched a turner carve some wood tops and wine bottle stoppers. We got a top. (At this point Calvin had slept a grand total of 20 minutes, so he was off-and-on fussy. Briggs also missed his daily nap, but swore he was fine until we set off for home: five minutes in the car and he was OUT. See the photos.)

Last stop was Blowing Rock. It's in private hands but is well-maintained. The rock is cool and there is a nifty observation tower that looks over the whole valley. That was pretty much worth the admission price. Calvin took a tumble running down down the tower walkway and hurt his lip and nose (Eli, ever the rescuer, ran for help). We were the focus of attention way more than we like to be for a few minutes there.

We used the Parkway to go up from Linville to Cone Park and Blowing Rock. We used US221 the whole way down. The Parkway is the better choice for speed and ease. The only benefit of 221 is an awesome view of the Linn Cove Viaduct from about 300 straight down at one point on the highway. US221 eventually straightens out a little bit and we made a dash back to Linville Falls, and ultimately Marion where we had supper at Fatz (kind of dark and a little up-scale for us hiker-refugees). We were home by 8PM.

Pictures are here.