Craggy Gardens

This Saturday we ventured out to Craggy Gardens on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The original plan was to camp over the weekend in the Smokies but due to massive rain on Friday afternoon/evening, we bagged the camping trip and settled for a day-trip instead.

There are only so many days that come along in life that could be described as PERFECT and I'd have to say that this was one of them. We lazed around during the morning finally putting together a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon from the food we planned on cooking while camping. Then we threw some light snacks of fruit and hummus into a cooler along with a few "after-hike" brews and headed out.

One of the pros of living in Asheville is the proximity of the Parkway. We can be on it in 5 minutes, and after a 30 minute drive North we are in the parking/picnicking area of Craggy Gardens. Craggy is a neat area with stone picnic tables and grills settled in an area of buckeye trees near the top of a bald (crag). There is a mild 0.8 mile hike upward to the top. At the top there is a shelter, overlook and endless clumps of Rhodadendron. The Rhoddies were not in bloom due to an early season frost, but we found plenty of blueberry bushes and picked a bag-full of sweet mini-berries!!

Temperatures made the day top-notch as well. 70 degree weather with mountain breezes up on the Parkway that required a light, long-sleeved sweatshirt. Perfect "fall" weather! I (Jim) hiked to the top by myself as Lexie and Pam rested in the sun for a bit. I then came back down and carted Lexie most of the way up on my shoulders while Pam trailed us. We go to the top, picked blueberries, took pictures and enjoyed the views!! Splendid!!

After we came down we snacked, enjoyed our brews (Lexie had apple-juice)and proceeded to find out just how much fun rolling downhill in the grass could be. Lexie had a BLAST rolling with her mom and dad, making up games and running from tree to tree. We spent the better part of 5 hours up on the parkway as a family and it was PERFECT.