Craggy Gardens

The past few weekends have been perfect weather! Matthew and I decided to take advantage of our beautiful mountains. He had been talking about going to Craggy Gardens for the past month, and we had the perfect opportunity last weekend.

So we set off down our back roads through Gerton, Fairview, and Asheville where we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Following the brown park signs, we found the Craggy Gardens picnic area and a trail. We began walking up, and up, and up... We found a shelter at the top. From there you have three choices: 1) Go back; 2) Continue through the meadow; 3) Continue past the shelter. We chose #2 and found a beautiful view at the end. Matthew is a geography buff and can usually name one or two of the mountains we see. From the end of the meadows, you come back to the shelter where we were back to choices #1 and #3, so we chose #3 this time. We weren't sure where this trail would take us, but it was a pleasant little hike through the woods with various signs describing the high elevation environment (a little over 5,000 ft).

We hiked for several minutes and debated about turning back. We could hear road noise (which I thought was taking us back to the parking lot, Matthew knew that it was the parkway), so we found the end of the trail... at the Visitor's Center!

The view from the Visitor's Center.

This is the view from the top of the first trail near the shelter (taken with my panoramic option).

It was the perfect hike. The weather was a little overcast and cool, but I didn't mind a bit!

It was time for lunch, and thanks to my nifty, little Blackberry we found a restaurant on the way home. Folks in the Asheville area, or folks visiting the area, I HIGHLY recommend Pomodoro's. Matthew had a delicious frittata with sausage and red peppers. I had shrimp and polenta with sausage and goat cheese (per suggestion from our server). It was a great way to end our Blue Ridge excursion!