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

Summertime Color

Our summer is particularly lovely this year. The temperatures have been milder than usual. This lovely old Antebellum Home was built before modern air conditioning was available so they built it to stay cool. It has high ceilings, covered porches, and has a long central hall. We installed new screen doors a while back, now we can leave the doors open for a good bit of the day and enjoy the breeze.

 A very wet evening

This post is all about summertime color, and well, you don't get pretty summer color without a little rain (no this does not look like a "little" rain). This is what it looked like when we turned off the paved road to head home.

 A welcome site

Our road sign. The distortion is caused by rain. It was really coming down. Somehow this scene still manages to be beautiful (and it means I am almost home).

 Sparklers!

Sorry, no pictures of the sparklers in action. I was to busy being a kid to grab the camera. Just so you know, they are still fun. I was surprised to see the notice on the box though, "This is not a toy and not suitable or recommended for children 12 years of age and under". Really? At 5 or 6 they are magic, at 13 they are "kid stuff"(at a slightly more advanced age, they become great fun again). Sparklers are one of the joys of childhood.

 Green Country Road

Who would not want to take a walk down this country road. I may be a little biased, but I think this road is lovely anytime of year. If you have been looking at this blog for long, you have seen it in all seasons, if not, feel free to explore the Blog archive links on the right hand side bar.

 Snake Skeleton

There is always something interesting to look at. This was on a side rode we don't usually walk on. I don't know how long it had been there. I am not going to pick the snakes up and play with them, but we do like having them around as they keep the rodent population under control. 

 Don Pablo's

My Sweet Husband took me out for dinner at Don Pablo's last time we were in Greenville SC. This is one of the most colorful restaurants I have seen. Just walking in and looking around is cheerful. 

 See what I mean?

Even the air ducts are painted lavender.

 Don Pablo's Interior

We had a booth near the fountain.

Don Pablo's Food

I will admit we did not go to the restaurant for the environment. We wanted to check out the food. Don Pablo's is next door to one of the Barnes and Noble Book Stores in Greenville. We have said we were going to try it out for years. Finally got around to it. We will be going back, the food was great and there was plenty of it. 

 Spontaneous Play

Spontaneous might not be a young kitty, but she still loves to chase that ribbon.

 Colorful Turtle

It could be a tortoise, I do not know the difference. My Sweet Husband rescued this one from the road. We keep napkins in the car for just such occasions. After we took his picture, Sweet Hubby released him on the side of the road he was heading towards. Off he went seemingly content.

 Bright Yellow Wildflowers

Breakfast is ready!

Got to go, homemade pizza awaits.

Hope your day is colorful and fun!

Cheers,

Kat

& 

Spontaneous

Congaree National Park, a Saturday escape.

Last weekend, we decided to take a break.

We went to Congaree National Park.

It is located near Columbia, SC.

Click on the link here Congaree National Park  for all the details.

Conagree is a relatively young National Park, it was

designated as a National Natural Landmark in the 1970's,

but has only been a National Park since 2003.

There are plenty of things to do at the park,

We decided to go for a walk on the boardwalk.

It is an easy two mile loop. 

Moody and atmospheric,

Especially when you are alone. 

 Cyprus Knees grow up all around the base of cyprus trees.

See the lumps sticking up?

No worries, I don't beleive it is actually haunted,

but this picture looked so moody,

I could not resist.

It is the season!

Photoshop is fun. 

The trees grow in such wierd shapes. 

Nature keeps things interesting. 

 Is it a stray root,

or did someone wander from the path.....

Shelf fungus. 

There is so much to see

it is easy to forget to look up.

Surrounded by peaceful beauty. 

Just a hint of Autumn Color. 

and of course, 

you must appriciate the small things too.  

 A snapping turtle in Weston Lake.

Can you see him, just under the water?

There he is,

I took this with the zoom.

Snapping Turtles bite. 

A smaller turtle swimming near by.

We spent a nice little while watching these guys. 

Looks like a rendezvous. 

Do you think it is romantic?

All good things must come to an end.

We will certainly go back.

This was one of the most peaceful walks,

just what I needed. 

The bonus,

we stopped for some groceries on the way home

and were greeted with this when we came out.

Just plain lovely.

Cheers,

Kat

Join me for a walk in our Carolina woods.

I am taking a break from school! A much needed break. 

We went for a long walk in the woods the other day to celebrate. 

These little purple wildflowers are all over.

Does anyone know what they are? 

These are Carolina Jessamine.

They are a climbing vine and they are usually quite high up in the tree.

These were lower so I took the opportunity to get a few shots.

They smell good too. 

This patch was a little higher up. My sweet Hubby held the camera high to get this one.

They are so pretty. The individual blossoms are a little more than an inch long.

They are similar to Jasmin, but not the same. Our Jasmin is not out yet.

I invited you to join me for a walk.

Here is the head of our trail.

The woods are lovely today.

The temperature is mild, in the 70's (about 21 Celsius) the sun is shining, and there is a light breeze. 

(I think this trail needs a little clearing, oh well, it is fine for walking)

This is an unusual tree. I have seen them like this before.

I don't know why they grow this way, but this one seems happy enough.  

This area reminds me of New Mexico, yet it is a short walk from our house.

This area was probably part of the original plantation. We own the five acres around the house and the rest is in forest now. Our house was built up on brick pillars. Originally you would have been able to see under the house between the pillars but at some point in the past, an owner filled the spaces between pillars with more bricks. If you look close you can tell which is which. The clay for the original pillars and the chimneys probably came from the property. When we had the chimneys rebuilt we found some bricks that have partial hand prints in them. We had a few of those reset so you can see them in the library.

The clay limits what will grow, and how it grows.

This is an interesting specimen. I wonder what made it grow curly like that.

 Interesting, but let's head back into the woods.

 Oh dear! Now this would make a good story.

How and why?

It is an old Chevy truck and you can see it has been here a long time.

It is a long way from any road.

We think it was a flatbed, maybe a logging truck?

Sad.

 Creek bed.

Not quite big enough for fishing.

This is one of our neighbors.

It is the nearest structure to our place that is still standing.

We have no idea what it was for or how old it is.

It is slowly falling apart. 

Here we come back out onto the road home.

Wasn't that a lovely walk?

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Cheers,

Kat