October 10 Travel Day, Rain, Linville Falls, Blue Ridge Parkway

Saturday, October 10, 2020

A light mist is falling this morning, with the temperature at 69 degrees.  Muggy.   We take some small back roads for a while, through mostly rural countryside and small towns and the rain becomes steady. Then we hit highway 70, and highway 40 and head for the hills (Blue Ridge Mountains).

 The temperature falls to the 50's as we jump on the parkway and make our way to Linville Falls Campground, arriving about 2:30 in a downpour.  Guess what?  There are several sites available, which may not have been the case without the rain... 

We eat some lunch and read and write a bit and the rain finally pauses.  Greg goes for a walk around the campgrounds, and then we decide to do the hike to Linville Falls while we can!  The forecast is calling for more rain over the next two days, so we've reserved this site for two days, hoping that we'll have some brighter weather to check out the changing foliage. We can see that the color is there, but fog and rain makes it dim unless you are close up.

Glad again that we have hiking boots and Beth's walking stick as the trail is sometimes wet and muddy with fallen leaves adding to the mix.  We first take the trail down to the falls, through a mixed forest of hemlock, oak, pine and find it a little underwhelming, not realizing the second falls isn't visible from here. 

  After climbing back up the trail we see a sign for an overlook which, of course, is further uphill but gives a much nicer view, including the upper and lower falls. Getting to the overlook perch is a little challenging. 

  The rock formations by the falls are called chimneys.

If you look closely you can see people at the first area we walked to.

In the other direction is a beautiful view of the Linville River.

The campground is quite nice, with nicely spaced sites.  Across the road there is a family with five young kids (probably under 10) in two tents.  We don't envy them in this weather. 

 The rain comes back and continues most of the night, but we are high and dry, warm and comfy.  We finish the crab cakes, along with fried potatoes and edamame.