For four out of the last five years, Catherine has blessed me to be able to spend some guilt-free time in the woods with an old friend from high school. She knows I love me some mountains, and it is good for my soul to disconnect for some time and just soak in the sights and sounds of wilderness.
For this trip, Jason and I made our way to Cataloochee in the far east of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where we got to see and hear bugling elk in the evening. We camped somewhat close to this river - not close enough to hear it at night, but close enough to want to explore it in the morning.
From there, we made our way to the Shining Rock Wilderness Area in the Pisgah National Forest, where we spent a couple of days just exploring. This particular series of mini-falls was a ways up from our campsite.
This falls, below, is Skinny Dip Falls. It was a short walk from the Blue Ridge Parkway - maybe a mile or so. We shared it with some other hikers, most of whom came in and left while we just explored the area.
The leaf situation was a bit weird. On the north side of the Blue Ridge Parkway, like Graveyard Fields (below), the colors were popping. But other places, green prevailed.
We hiked in to the Great Smokies on the south central side - about 5-6 miles in. We shared the site with a couple of other hikers, but they arrived late, so we pretty much had this river to enjoy until just before dinner.
Cheers,
Marc
