Last Weekend, Heintooga Round Bottom Road

Last weekend, my Sweet Husband and I, went hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I promised pictures and here they are. 

Please note, most of these were taken with my oldest Fuji Finepix as someone (who me) forgot to either charge the battery in the Cannon or bring along the spare....

Good thing the Fuji was with me.

Fuzzy Caterpillar
We stopped at a picnic table in Maggie Valley to eat our lunch and build up our energy before hitting the trail. This entertaining fellow decided to come check us out. Evidently we were not all that interesting, but my purse was. I had to move it out of his way several times.

Mushrooms
 We spotted a bit of bright color early in. The mountains are lovely this time of year and the temperature was perfect for the day we had planned. I always associate mushrooms with autumn, but they are visible year round. I would not be brave enough to pick wild mushrooms, but I think they are fascinating and I love to take pictures of them (some may hide fairies you know see By Special Request , Blue Fairy , or Hodge Podge, for example).

The Road
We reached our destination, Heintooga Round Bottom Road, early in the afternoon. Heintooga is a 25 mile long, one way, unpaved road just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It has lovely picnic areas at the top and the bottom comes out near Cherokee North Carolina. We have been up here before and usually we park at the top, walk for an hour or so and walk back. This time, we decided to drive down a ways, find a safe pull off, then walk a bit, return to the car and repeat the process.

Miniature Waterfall
Our plan was a good one. The road is clearly marked at the top as one way so there is not much traffic. The few people who do use it are there for the scenery and they are going slow (usually with lovely smiles on their faces, it is that nice). There are little waterfalls and streams in several places along the way.

Hanging Vine
I saw this and it reminded me of Jack's Beanstalk. I could see climbing that. It almost appears to be braided and tied in knots. That gets the imagination going. I wonder if I could add some Fairies climbing it?

Top of the Vine
This is the same vine, further up. Nature is always interesting. Climbing or touching anything in the woods, is not a good idea unless you know what you are doing. The vine could turn out to be poison ivy (Fairies would probably be immune, right?).

The road
The road turns and twists gently down the mountain side. You don't have to walk very far to find something lovely to photograph.

Bend in the road
What is up ahead? I love the way the light filters through the trees in the afternoon. 

Yellow Fringed Orchid
This was a lucky find. There were only three or four plants and I have not seen them before. I identified it with the help of US Wildflowers . 

Potential
This one was a little further down the same trail. It is not open enough for me to attempt to look it up, but seeing it and knowing that it will be covered in flowers soon, makes me smile. 

Mushroom
 Here is another one. We had a light rain shower. If I had found this during the rain, would I have found a fairy sheltering under neath?

Trail
This is aways down one of the trails that connect with Heintooga Round Bottom Road. I love the play of light and shadow through the trees. So very atmospheric. There was no one else on the trail but us. So peaceful.

Another view
I could walk for hours in places like this. The day was wonderful. The temperature was just right and the light sprinkle hardly reached us through the trees. 

Navigating
Our trusty navigation system was a little baffled. We told it we were going to Cherokee. When we first turned on the Blue Ridge, it kept trying to turn us around. It eventually gave up and routed us through the parkway. When we turned onto Heintooga Round Bottom Road, it was confused again, apparently as it is not a paved road, the system does not show it. As you can see, it finally just told us to "Continue to roadway".

Nearly to Cherokee
This is close to where Heintooga comes back out onto the paved road. Still lovely, now it goes both ways. From here we drove on in to Cherokee North Carolina. There were BEARS, (you will have to wait till next time for those pics though).

My Sweet Husband
One of the trail heads we turned down while we walked. What a wonderful way to spend a day and what a wonderful person to spend it with. I am so very lucky!

Breakfast Pizza
Speaking of lucky, this is what is waiting for me for breakfast. It is a veggie Pizza made from scratch just for me (OK so I have to share it with the Chef, but I like sharing with him).
Hope your weekend was as nice.
Cheers,
Kat

Autumn Post

Autumn Color

 

 Heintooga Roundbottom Road

Blue Ridge Parkway

North Carolina

 Glorious Color

 The perfect moment in time

 Majesty

 Choosing Apples

 

Bounty



 Time Travelers

 Where too next?

 

Cheers,

Kat



Day trip part 2, awesome autumn, 300th post and a contest.

Since this is my 300th post,

I figured it should be a special one.

I think this set of photos is one of the best I have ever posted,

I hope you will agree.

Sit back and enjoy the walk,

can't you just hear the crunching leaves?

when we are done, I will tell you all about my contest.

 Heintooga Round Bottom Road

This is one of our favorite places to walk at any time of year.

I have posted photos from here before.

It is located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway

and it has to be one of the most beautiful places to look for Autumn.

 Here you can see why they call it the Blue Ridge.

I took this one on the way to Heintooga, but it was too pretty not to share.

 When we called before scheduling our trip,

the nice lady told us that the leaves were not as good this year

because the recent storms brought many leaves down early.

I do not agree with her.

 Everywhere you look,

there is beauty.

 My Sweet Husband agrees with me.

Where the trees are bare,

it just provides contrast.

 See what I mean?

In this case,

Nature is the poet.

 We have driven this road,

but usually we just park either at the top,

or if we have time along the way.

Then we walk,

(not the entire 14 miles!)

 Awesome,

When was the last time you really thought about the meaning of the word "Awesome".

It is for something that literally fills you with Awe.

(Did you notice, the leaf in flight)

 Yellow.

 Gold.

 Branches to frame the scenery.

 What will we see just around this bend,

and the next one.

It just keeps getting better.

 A crown of glory!

 Orange.

 Hillside color.

 A little higher up.

 Early evening shadows.

 Evening color.

 Looking up.

 Looking into the distance.

Autumn Red.

With all these photos,

I still need to post one more blog to cover that glorious day.

I promised to tell you about the contest.

I want to see who all is reading my blog.

This is a very simple contest,

all you have to do to enter is follow me.

If, you are already a follower,

just leave a comment on either this post or any subsequent posts between now and next Wednesday.

If you comment on more than one post,

I will give you an extra entry.

There will be a prize package.

I am not going to tell you what is in it yet,

but I think you will like it.

Spontaneous won't tell me what she thinks of this idea,

She is busy.

Cheers,

Kat

Don't forget to enter by next Wednesday.

Autumn on Heintooga Round Bottom Road, Blue Ridge Parkway.

I took a break from school work,
My Sweet Husband and I headed up to the mountains,
It is nearly a four hour drive,
but I think you will agree it was worth it.

Maggie Valley really gets into the spirit of Harvest Festival and Halloween,

there are elaborate roadside displays set up in front of many businesses.

 This place has pumpkin fudge!

Look at the size of those Pumpkins!

I am thinking, PIE!

Pumpkin pie is my all time favorite dessert,

even better than chocolate (yes, I know, that is almost sacrilege, but it is true).

 I love Jello brand instant pumpkin pudding when I can find it
and lately I have a thing for Pumpkin Ale.

 We found a lovely picnic spot out behind the store with the great display.

 Here is another view of the river, it sounded so peaceful.
I took these pictures about a week ago and the temperatures were in the high 60's to low 70's (15 to 21 degrees Celsius). It felt great. It is always a little cooler in the mountains.
The leaves change earlier up there too.

 After our picnic, we headed up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway.
One of our favorite trails is Heintooga Round Bottom Road (I love to say that).
It is a one way, winding, unpaved road.
It goes through some beautiful territory.
We like to park and walk along it.

 Are you starting to see why we like it so much?
The scenery is quite different up there.
Most of our trees are taking there time, we have very little fall color
here at Kat's corner. As I said in the last post, the pictures of our old barn with
all that autumn color are from a previous autumn, before we had the roof replaced.

 I will of course post pictures of our lovely old house with autumn around it,
as soon as our trees will cooperate.
In the mean time, Heintooga Round Bottom Road sure soothed my hunger for autumn.

 This is one of my favorites.
You can see off in the distance, why they are called the blue ridge mountains.
How can you not love a place that looks like this!

I am so happy it is fall!
I love to be cozy and cooler temperatures mean;
fires in the fireplace,
my long fuzzy road,
Warm red fuzzy slippers,
and a fat lazy cat that likes to snuggle on my lap once again.

Spontaneous the lap cat,

now what could be more cozy than that?

Hope you are all warm and cozy too,

Kat