NC Mountains 2014 - Days 13 &14

Day 13 - Wednesday 8/20/14 It was 63 degrees again this morning when we did our morning walk. Yesterday the temps only got to the upper 60’s unlike at home. Our son called and said it was 93 degrees there yesterday.

After breakfast we decided to do some more exploring the area. We drove through some beautiful mountain scenery and ended up at Roan Mountain State Park in Tennessee. We checked out their campground which has been renovated recently and was a really nice campground. One that we plan to come back to in the future to stay a week or so. We left the park and found a local café and got a really good and BIG mushroom swiss burger. On the way back to our campground we saw a sign for Elk River Falls so we drove down the back road to find it. It was at the very end of the road. The trail up to the falls was in very poor condition and kind of dangerous near the best view area so we didn’t get to see it from the best viewing point but didn’t want to risk a broken leg either so we took the best photos we could and left. We returned to our campground mid afternoon and relaxed and read the remainder of the day.

Day 14 - Thursday  8/20/14 This morning we walked a trail that goes up the hill behind the campground that the owners of the campground told us about. The land is part of their property. At the end of the trail it overlooks the North Toe River that runs beside the campground.

We decided to not do any exploring today. I worked on some of my woodworking crafts. I don’t bring any of my lathes but do on occasion bring some of my pyrography work or other small things I can bring with me. Lena did some reading and played games on her kindle. I cooked our supper on the grill. Then I tried my luck at fishing in the pond in the campground but the fish must have already ate supper because no one was catching anything.

When we were sitting outside in the evening we talked about how we understand why people come here and stay all summer. The campground is really nice, grounds are very well cared for and the scenery is really nice surrounding the grounds and the sounds of the North Toe River on one side of the campground is soothing. The people that spend the season here are very friendly and the gently cool breezes are the icing on the cake. It is really quite but probably will be a little busier this weekend.