Eulalia!: Shining Rock Wilderness

And surrounding area.

Jennifer had a week off and asked if I could possibly join her last minute, and she was willing to drive. So I abandoned my family for 5 days and we headed to North Carolina. It took nearly all day Tuesday to get there, we decided to camp at Davidson River State Park the first night because it was so close to the ranger station.

We got checked in without any trouble, though weekends it seems are a madhouse. GET RESERVATIONS. They said the gate does not open until 7, but people pull up starting at 4 a.m. and will wait until after 11 when walk-up sites MAY open up after people leave! It's a nice campground, but I can't imagine blowing that much of my weekend in hopes a spot will open up especially when there are sites you can get online DAYS in advance. Same for Mt. Pisgah where we camped 2 nights later. The ranger said they have to block the road and sometimes put tenters in the RV sites, which are all concrete.

Wednesday, we got up early and went to the ranger station and got the lowdown on hikes, campsites, and ideas for things we should see. NONE of the maps and directions we got quite worked out as planned. It didn't ruin the trip, but we did head out on 2 different hikes with the crappy maps they gave us plus the big Nat Geo Illustrated Trail map and a compass and still did not get where we thought we were headed.

We drove on up and saw Looking Glass Falls. Sliding Rock had just closed for the season, it's in the same area. We kept going to the Parkway and did the full 3 falls hike at Graveyard Fields (in the rain) and then had a late lunch at Pisgah Inn.

We headed down to get a spot to camp for the night and backpacked in from the hatchery to a nice site right on the creek.

After setting up, we headed out on one of the hikes the ranger described and it did not go as planned, though we did get plenty tired!

Thursday morning we went looking for a waterfall the ranger told us about. We found A waterfall, but not THE waterfall and decided that was good enough. We headed back to the Parkway and went to Devil's Courthouse to walk to the top and it was covered in fog. We waited half an hour or so and decided to leave. Looking back at the outcropping from the other side, it was totally clear. So we turned around and climbed it in the fog anyway and BAM, it cleared! We checked out the views and took pictures and walked back down-it's about the same as walking to Clingman's Dome-short and super steep. I think it's 300-foot climb, but over about 1/4 mile.

From there we went to the Sam Knob trailhead and did a day hike to the top and checked out side trails to various campsites. We knew from talking to the rangers that bears were VERY bad this year, to the point that they had taken backpacks out of tents and regularly shopped campsites to remove any bags they found. The trees are stunted, bear bagging doesn't work. Bear canisters are required and have been since 2015, but almost no one uses them. We had one but also planned to camp close enough to leave all the food in the car and just take bedding.

We crossed the bald and climbed Sam Knob. WHEW. That was a steep trail! The trail to the base was easy peasy, so the climb on the knob was worse in a way after that stroll! It's a mile of steady climbing as the trail kind of spirals to the top. At the top, there was no 360 view as the ranger promised. DANG! We looked at what we could as the rain joined us again and headed back to the car.

Jennifer decided she wanted to eat the lasagna she dehydrated for dinner, so we decided smelly food plus our desire for a shower after being rained on and sweaty equaled a night at Mt. Pisgah campground. We got checked in ($20) and set up, showered, she ate her yummy food, and we went to the Inn to sit out back and watch the sunset. The view is south facing, so there was no spectacular show, but it was still really pretty.

Below the Inn is a LONG valley where the Cradle of the Forestry is, so it's undeveloped. There are no lights or houses or even cars moving on roads, just miles of trees. It's beautiful!

Friday morning we got going early again and went straight to Balsam Gap after packing up. We hiked the Art Loeb Trail toward Shining Rock, stopping every 10 feet for more photos. It's possibly the prettiest trail I have ever been on. We looked across at Sam Knob, it got shorter and shorter as we scaled the mountain-it's a huge bald there, so nothing BUT views. We crossed bald after bald and stopped for lunch, checked the map and the time and opted to take the jeep road back to the Sam Knob trailhead instead of crossing the balds again because of the storms due in that afternoon. The balds were not only exposed, they were covered in stripes of blueberry and rhododendron that made progress SLOW in places as you fought for footing in the washed out trail and for breathing room in the thickets.

At the end of the jeep road, we took the Art Loeb connector trail back up and over to meet up with the Art Loeb Trail on the first bald and took that back to the car. We hiked about 6-7 miles. I was about done for!

Since rain was coming to the area-we could see it headed across the valley!-we decided to start back toward home. We opted to stop in Robbinsville, NC for the night and camped on the lake there. That was far enough south to avoid the weather AND we ate Mexican-sooooo much Mexican. So much that with all the hiking AND sticking to my IF plan, I weighed 2 pounds more after I got home than I did before I left!

Saturday, back up and out early, we hit the Skyway, a first for Jennifer, and stopped at Huckleberry Knob and walked to the top for one last sweeping view. I had forgotten what a climb that trail is! It's steady at least, not that insane stacked rock mess from the day before. I hate climbing stairs on a hike! hahaha! I was half dead, which is pretty funny because it was pretty minimal compared to the rest of our week. I think I was just that tired, finally.

Back at the car, we stopped once more at the visitor center in Tellico Plains, then for lunch outside of Chattanooga, a quick run in at REI, then back to Jennifer's! I got home just in time for Matt to leave for a gig.

And that's our trip!

from the drive up

Nantahala River

I hammocked every other night.

Davidson River trail. Look how FLAT.
I love it.

Lots of effort to stop cairn building in streams. Signs, brochures, exhibits.
I will admit, I had not considered the damage the cause mainly because I was thinking of floods and how the rocks move around so much from the flow of water. But that's seasonal, and not all summer long the way cairn building tends to be-right in the middle of when the babies need them!

the swimming area at the campground

English Chapel along the trail

Looking Glass Falls
No idea why this seems so blurry!

up on the Parkway, the fog was suddenly everywhere!

Something is not quite right here.

eh, some view.

All the dead hemlocks

We went to Graveyard Fields as our first hike

hugs!

It poured rain!

This is a photo of the pouring rain from under a cedar tree, but it's not really showing the rain!

It cleared off after the rain, we stopped at the overlooks on the way back toward Brevard.

That's Looking Glass Rock, which we started calling Mt. Shiny

Dramatic Clouds

Thursday:

It just looked like it should be in black and white.

We left, driving back through the tunnel.

Then saw the other side of this stretch was clear, so we turned around and went back.

Different looking quartz

After this, we went to Sam Knob, about 2 miles away.

The field was gorgeous and CRAMMED full of flowers.

And flies and bees, which kept landing on my upper arms.

I was very nearly insane before we got across.

This spot is where we climbed uphill for a mile.

The GPS app screwed up and said it was 1900 feet, which I felt was accurate on some level, but it was probably really closer to...300 feet?

the rain found us on the way down

The insects were all hiding out, so my return trip was far less dramatic.

There's Mt. Shiny with the sun on it! The pic below here shows the bare rock across the valley. We think that's John Rock and we actually tried to climb it the night before and ended up...not.