NC Tripping Part 3

 Our last full day we spent traveling a good distance of the Blue Ridge Parkway heading east from Asheville.  The day looked quite promising with nice temps and just some puffy clouds and a decent forecast.  We were pumped to do lots of scenic overlooks and some easy hikes.

As we got to the higher elevations, we felt like we could touch the clouds they were so close!

I don't remember what this waterfall was called but we barely had to walk anywhere from the road to get to it! 

I love these panorama shots when I put them on my TV...on a blog post...not so great!

One of our last hikes started out literally in the clouds.  It was like walking into a rain forest - everything was mossy and wet.

Another tree that I just thought was "special".  Kind of "tree of life" looking.

This tree was also really cool with it's sideways growing branches that make a perfect frame for Leslie standing in the distance.

From the other side - now me in the frame! LOL!

It looks like just a not so great picture but that's because we were in the clouds...a fine misty swirl was surrounding us!

As we wound our way back down to a lower elevation, the sky went back to being it's beautiful self!

Next stop, Crabtree Falls - an easy 1.5-mile hike down and then 1.5 miles back out.  Easy peasy and our last hike of the trip.

Although it was probably one of the tougher trails we took with lots of rocks and roots, going down, down, down is never all that bad.  You just have to really watch your feet. But it was so pretty!  The weather had said there was a 30% chance of rain in the afternoon but it was only supposed to be 0.03" so when it started to sprinkle while we were at the falls, we weren't too concerned and didn't even put on our rain gear right away...

Let's just say, it was a very long 1.5 miles back up from the bottom in what was pretty much a pouring rain!!  But we had a blast, made the best of it, and were almost dry by the time we made it to dinner!