Weekend at Linville Gorge

D and I went camping this weekend for the first time out here. It was beautiful. The sunset on our way out to the mountains was breathtaking.




We camped at a private little campground where the owners lived in a house right on the campground. It was their property and they let people camp there. What a dream job! The campground was very well taken care of and the bathrooms had hot water and clean showers! We will definitely be going back.





Saturday morning we drove out to a trailhead at Linville Gorge "The Grand Canyon of North Carolina". The trees were so dense it felt like a rainforest, not like hiking in Cali at all.

The trail was pretty easy as we started, but got steeper the closer to the Gorge. There were some pretty crazy switchbacks that didn't seem like trail at all. Then you come around a corner and see a huge wall of basalt columns and water trickling down.

The moss grew everywhere and the ground was soft with layers of leaves and pine needles.

Beautiful flowers of all colors sprung up out of crevices in the rocks. Trees grew between cracks, the never ending battle between wood and stone.

This is our first view of the Gorge floor and Liville River. We hiked down about 1000 feet. The trail was a bit treacherous in places. There is so much rainfall here that the trail has to be rebuilt regularly. It is cut out of the side of a mountain and the fall is straight down.

It's September and the river is low. In the spring these rocks would be covered with water. The river runs about 10 feet deep during the spring. We played around down at the riverbed and took pictures and ate some snacks. There were little fish in the river too. A little trout, a catfish and a sucker-fish that D called an Oscar. I also saw a huge millipede. It was longer than my finger and had a thousand little tiny legs that moved in waves down it's body. The hike back up took my breath away, literally! A thousand feet ascent up a steep, switchback, mountain trail. The rocks and roots made for interesting footfalls. But it was worth it. Back to the truck, we're off to check out the waterfall at the head of the Gorge.

Linville Falls has an easy trail from the parking lot and there were a lot of visitors on Saturday. I heard a few different languages and saw some interesting folks on the way down and back.

The falls start with a little rapid spilling into a large pool. This would be a nice place to swim and play in (if the people who owned the National Forests, ie, us, could actually use them, but I digress). All we could do was take pictures. When I first saw these little rapids, I hoped the Carolinians had a better definition of 'waterfall' than this. I turned to my right and saw...

This picture is straight down. The gentle pool of water funnels into a tight crevasse and spirals down this chute of chimney rocks. This would be an awesome inner-tube ride! In the spring, the water finds it's way down a few different routes.

Here is a shot from Erwin's Viewpoint. The falls are gorgeous, the hiking superb and the scenery enveloping. We ate lunch at a sweet little restaurant called Famous Louise Rock House Restaurant. It is situated on the border of 3 counties and has signs inside indicating what county your table is in. I moved across all three counties to check out their brochure rack. I felt like such a traveler!

We had a great weekend away from the world and computers and phones and bills. There are few things in this life that are more rewarding than sitting by a campfire listening to the sounds of the night. Hiking down a trail to turn a corner and see the beauty that God has created for us.

I hope that we will step outside our front doors and look around. Take a walk down the street, a drive to the country, a weekend in a National Forest. The world is waiting.