On a recommendation from a local, I began by checking out Blowing Rock.
This is the rock that blows.
It's named after a native American legend that goes kind of like this...
A Chickasaw chieftan was fearful for his lovely daughter, because she had attracted the admiration of a white man. He journeyed far from the plains to bring her to a tall mountain. He left her there to be cared for by a squaw mother (an elder woman of her tribe). One day the girl was daydreaming in loneliness on the mountain's cliffs. She saw a Cherokee brave (warrior) wandering in the wilderness far below. She playfully shot an arrow in his direction. The flirtation worked! He soon appeared at her wigwam, and he romanced her with songs of his land. They soon became lovers. Together, they wandered the pathless woodlands and the crystal streams, bound by ever-strengthening love.
One day a strange reddening of the sky brought the two lovers to a great rock on top of the mountain where she was exiled. To the brave, it was a sign of trouble. It told him that his people were at war. He knew he must return home to help his people with the fight.
She begged him not to leave her. The brave, torn by conflict of duty and heart, leaped from the great rock into the wilderness far below. The girl was grief-stricken. She fell to her knees and wept and prayed to the Great Spirit to return her lover. She remained like this, weeping and praying, for many days and nights.
One night the sky again became red, and a great wind blew up the mountain's side and over the rock, where she still knelt grieving. A gust of wind blew her lover back to the top on the rock, and into her arms. From that day, a perpetual wind has blown up onto this rock from the valley below.
Next, I went down to Grandfather Mountain, the tallest and oldest in the Appalachain chain.
Near the top was a suspension bridge that lead to an outcropping with great views.
The trails were great. I wish I'd had more time for them.
They had a "habitat area" with bears, deer, eagles, otters, and lions. I could only get a decent shot of this guy.
The sun was getting low, so I had to race through this pretty park called Linville Falls.
Hmmm... Over or under?
Here are some other sights I saw on the Blue Ridge Parkway and other roads...
A happy house in the college/hippie town of Boone
A roadside rest area with a path down to a pretty little stream
UFO clouds near sunset
(Blue Ridge Mountains - May 2007)
