Mt. Mitchell in the Clouds

Blue Ridge Trip '24 #32
Back in Boone, NC - Sat, 7 Sep 2024. 6pm

The plan for today, our last full day in North Carolina, was simple. We'd enjoy a fun and fulfilling hike at Catawba Falls then two-fer the day with a visit to nearby Mt. Mitchell. At elev. 6,684 feet (2,037 m) it's the highest peak in the eastern US.

Weather forecasts said it would be a clear afternoon at Mt. Mitchell. It didn't take a degree in meteorology to recognize that as we climbed from the foothills there were thick clouds clustered around the 6,000'+ peaks around Mt. Mitchell.



We drove up the access road into Mt. Mitchell State Park. We wondered if maybe the highest peak would poke above the clouds or if we could wait out the clouds for them to burn off on this otherwise sunny day. Alas, neither happened. (The clouds shrouding the valley around Catawba Falls stuck there seemingly all day, too.) The top was completely socked in with clouds. And it was cold. And windy! We waited in our car for about 30 minutes with no change before heading back down. We figured we'd enjoy the rest of the Blue Ridge mountains in the sunshine.

We drove the scenic route home, sticking to the Blue Ridge Parkway almost the whole way. The thing is, while it's the scenic route it's actually not that much slower than driving regular highways since there are no traffic lights or stop signs. And heck, there was barely even any traffic— surprising for a Saturday afternoon.

Now we're back at our hotel in Boone. We're taking it easy this afternoon but also cleaning and arranging our gear to pack it up tomorrow morning, when we begin our trip home.

Taking it Easy on the First Day of Fall

Today's the first day of Fall. How are we celebrating it? Well, we went to the pool this morning.

It looked gloomy outside so we were thinking, "Warm up in the hot tub." It's been weeks since we used our own hot tub, anyway. A gloomy morning seemed like the right time to get back in the groove. But then the sky cleared as we got in the water.



It's turned out to be a beautiful day today. The sky is clear (after morning clouds burned off) and the air is a pleasantly warm 82° at the afternoon high. What a wonderful day for... doing nothing.

We feel like we deserve a rest today. Yesterday we were out all day with an adventure up in the Sierras. Yeah, I'm behind on blogging about that. So far all I've posted is our first stop of the day yesterday at Silver Lake. But hey, at least this morning I finally caught up on blogging about our Blue Ridge Mountains trip— the one that we came home from two weeks ago—with my blog this morning about visiting Mt. Mitchell.

Fall had already seemed to come to the mountains of North Carolina 2-3 weeks ago. Temperatures were cool there, like summer was already over. Out here in California September has been a mixed bag, temperature-wise. We've had some cooler days and some warmer ones. We planned our trip to the Sierras yesterday as kind of a "last hurrah" for summer. Right now the forecast shows it'll remain warm at least into next weekend.... That's not surprising for here, as generally September's a good month weather-wise. But next Friday Hawk is having some outpatient surgery on her foot, so it's basically the end of the season hiking-wise.